
Rnnk .t/j 3 F^ 



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■ t'^'^i^i^^'iil^^ji:^ 




GENERAL MARION AS A TROOPER. 



PICTORIAL LIFE 



aENERAL MARION; 



EMBRACING 



ANECDOTES 



s> 



ILLUSTRATIVE OF HIS CHARACTER. 



EMBELLISHED WITH ENG-RAVINGS. 



. O, ' 



PHILADELPHIA: 
LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON, 

FOURTH AND CHESNUT STREETS. 

1847. 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by 

LINDSAY & BLAKISTON, 

in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United Stales for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



STEREOTYPED BY J. FAGAN. 

PRINTED BY T. K. AND P. G, COLLINS. 



(2) 



PREFACE. 

At Belle-Isle, St. Stephen's Parish, South Caro- 
lina, is a marble slab, bearing the inscription: — 
" Sacred to the memory of Brigadier-General Fran- 
cis Marion, — who departed this life on the 27th of 
February, 1795, in the sixty-third year of his age, 
deeply regretted by all his fellow-citizens. History 
will record his worth, and rising generations em- 
balm his memory,' as one of the most distinguished 
patriots and heroes of the American Revolution — 
which elevated his native country to Honour and 
Independence, and secured to her the blessings of 
Liberty and Peace. This tribute of veneration 
and gratitude is erected in commemoration of the 
noble and disinterested virtues of the citizen, and 
the gallant exploits of the soldier who lived with- 
out fear, and died without reproach." 

This volume is presented as an humble echo to 
the labours of those who would keep the memory 

(iii) 



IV PREFACE. 

of such men green among the people. While more 
elaborate and particular biographies appeal to the 
men, this book is addressed to the youth of the 
country which Marion fought to deliver. The 
principal and most interesting events in his life, 
and such incidents as tend best to illustrate his 
noble and daring character, are preserved. The 
writer will feel more than rewarded if his unam- 
bitious work shall lead the attention of those who 
are coming forward to fill men's places to such 
examples as will make them worthy to be the 
heirs of the self-denying and patriotic men of our 
American Revolution. 

Philadelphia, March, 1847. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Parentage and Birth of Francis Marion — His Voyage to the West 
Indies — Its unfortunate termination — Suflerings and narrow escape- 
of the Young Sailor — He turns Farmer — Indian Troubles — Marion 
volunteers — Indignity to the Indian Chiefs — Death of Colonel Coly- 
niore — The Hostages killed in retaliation — The second Indian Cam- 
paign — The third Campaign — Massacre of the Garrison at Fort 
Loudon — Battle of Etchoee — Gallant conduct of Lieutenant Marion 
— Interesting Letter, written by Marion -----.. Page 



CHAPTER n. 

Marion elected to the Provincial Congress — The Act of Association — 
Destruction of Tea and Stamped Paper — News of the Battle of Lex- 
ington — Measures of the Provincial Congress — Character of the 
Southern Warfare — Commissions of Marion and Horry — Their diffi- 
culties in raising Money, and ease in enlisting Men — Mischiefs of 
Intemperance — Marion's Rebuke to the Young Officer — His excel- 
lence as a Disciplinarian — His Promotion to a Majority — The Defence 
of Fort Sullivan — British Loss — Loss of the Carolinians — Anecdotes 
of the Battle — Gallant conduct of Serjeant Jasper — Marion's Shot — 
Compliments to Serjeant Jasper -----.------23 

CHAPTER in. 

Effects of the Successful Defence of Fort Sullivan — Evil Influences 
of a condition of Suspense — Serjeant Jasper — His talent at Disguises, 
and Visits to the Enemy — His first call upon his Brother in the British 
Army — His second Trip, with a Companion — A Party of American 
Prisoners brought into the British Camp — Their Distress — Jasper 
and Newton determine to liberate them — They follow, and by a 
Surprise conquer their Guard, killing four, and making the others 
Prisoners — Ill-advised Operations against Savannah — Repulse of the 
Americans, and Death of the brave Serjeant Jasper ------ 37 

(J) 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER IV. 



Withdrawal of the French Fleet from Savannah, and the American 
Forces from Georgia — Preparations for the Defence of Charleston — 
Marion as a Militia Commander — Accident by which he was Dis- 
abled — Fall of Charleston — Disingenuous and cruel course of the 
British — Disregard of the Terms of Capitulation — Melancholy Story 
of Colonel Hayne ---•--..--.-....53 



CHAPTER V. 

Movements and Character of Colonel Tarleton — Origin of the Phrase 
" Tarleton's Quarters" — Capture or Retreat of distinguished Caroli- 
nians — Eager Vindictiveness of the Tories — Hunting of Marion 
through the Swamps — He escapes to North Carolina — Meets his old 
Friend Horry — Their Poverty — The Unfriendliness of their Coun- 
trymen — National Financial Difficulties — Adventure at an Inn — 
American Women — Arrival of General Gates - -..-..CC 



CHAPTER VI. 

Marion's Fortitude — Military Character of Gates — His Obstinacy, and 
too hasty March — Poverty of the Country — Detachment of Marion 
in advance — Anecdote of Major James — Destruction of the Boats 
of the Planters — News received of Gates's Defeat — Death of De 
Kalb — Formation of Marion's Brigade — Cornwallis's Order — Suc- 
cess of Sumter — His subsequent Defeat ---.--...76 



CHAPTER VII. 

Marion watches the Road between Charleston and Camden — Disperses 
a Britisii Party and liberates its Prisoners — Fluctuating Numbers of 
Marion's Band — Surprise of Captain Barficld — Defeat of the Tories 
at Black Mingo -..-..-._ 89 



CONTENTS. Vll 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Serjeant Macdonald and the Tory — Marion's Horse, "Ball" — His pre- 
ference for Fords, over Bridges — His contempt of Luxury — Colonel 
Peter Horry's Horsemanship — Good Result from an accident — Ma- 
rion's Commission as Brigadier, and Horry's as Colonel — The Value 
of these Co.Timissions — Surprise of the Tories on the Pedee - - 103 



CHAPTER IX. 

Tory Recruits — Capture of Colonel Tynes — Effects of Marion's Suc- 
cess — British Testimony — Marion's Mode of Punishment — His great 
'Influence — Tarleton despatched in Pursuit — Alarm by the Burning 
of Dwellings — Narrow Escape of Marion — Tarleton's Energy — His 
Abandonment of the Pursuit — Result of the Expedition — Sumter's 
Movements — Defeat of Wemyss — Defeat of a Detachment under 
Tarleton — Wound of Sumter -.-----.----116 



CHAPTER X. 

British Reinforcements from New York sent to the South — Frustration 
of the Enemy's Plans — Pursuit of Major Ferguson by the Americans 
— Battle of King's Mountain — Total Defeat of the Tories — Corn- 
wallis falls back to Winnsboro — Leslie ordered to Charleston by Sea 
— Chain of British Posts — Marion's Movements — Incidents near 
Georgetown — The Whig Lady's Artifice — Defeat of Melton — Mur- 
der of Marion's Nephew — Affair with Colonel Gainey — Unhappy 
Character of the Contest ---.-.--..-... 126 



CHAPTER XL 

The Camp at Snow's Island — Its Defences — Sanguinary Warfare — 
Difficulties of Marion's Command — The Plunder of Croft's House — 
Marion's Proceedings against the Offenders — Incipient Mutiny — Con- 
tumacy of the Culprits — Suppression of the Mutiny — Expulsion and 
Outlawry of the Ringleaders — The Potato Dinner 139 



Vlll CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Greene's Appreciation of Marion — Colonel Washington's Ruse — A 
quiet piece of Ordnance — Morgan's Brigade — Pursuit by Tarleton — 
Battle of the Cowpens — Anecdote of Tarleton — Anecdote of Conyers 
— Lee joins Marion — Attack on Georgetown — Capture of the Com- 
manding Ofiicer — Partial Success of the Attack — Lee recalled by 
Greene — Movements of Cornwallis — Services of Marion's Brigade, 
in the Absence of the Regular Army ---- 151 



CHAPTER Xin. 

Detachments in pursuit of Marion — Colonel Tynes — Unfortunate Con- 
dition of Horry's Men — Pursuit of Mcllraith — Challenge to an 
Engagement by Champions — Mcllraith recedes from the Proposal, 
and Retreats — Marion draws oil his Men, and Mcllraith escapes — 
Encounter with Watson on the Santee — Brave Exploit of Gavin 

James Aflair at Mount Hope — Encounter on the Williamsburg 

Road — Watson's Message to Marion — McDonald's Sharp-Shooting 
— His Message to Watson — Watson blockaded at Blakeley's — He 
Escapes to Georgetown -.------------ 165 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Capture of Marion's Stronghold— Retreat of Colonel Doyle— Marion 
seeks Watson — Good news to the Whigs — Retreat of Watson — 
Battle of Camden — Fall of Fort Motte — A Heroic Lady— Hanging 
of Prisoners — British Evacuation of Georgetown — Abandonment of 
Seventy-Six — Daring Movements of the Partisans — Battle of Jumby 
— Rescue of Colonel Harden— Defeat of Major Frazier— Battle of 
Eutaw ^S2 



CHAPTER XV. 

Position of Affairs at the close of the year 1781 — Attempt on Marion's 
Detachment in his Absence — His unexpected Return, and Repulse of 
the Enemy — Meeting of the Legislature — Surprise of Marion's Bri- 
gade — Defeat of the Loyalists on the Pedee — Defeat of the British 
under Frazier — Death of Colonel Laurens — Evacuation of Charles- 
ton — Conclusion ---------------- '97 



LIFE 

OP 

FRANCIS MARION. 



CHAPTER I. 

Parentage and Birth of Francis Marion — His Voyage to the West In- 
dies — Its unfortunate termuiation — Sufferings and narrow escape of 
the Young Sailor — He turns Farmer — Indian Troubles — Marion 
volunteers — Indignity to the Indian Ciiiefs — Deathof Col. Colymore — 
The Hostages killed in retaliation — The second Indian Campaign— 
The third Campaign — Massacre of the Garrison at Fort Loudon — 
Battle of Etchoee — Gallant conduct of Lieut. Marion — Interesting 
Letter, written by Marion. 



RANCIS MARION', whose name is 
as intimately connected with the ro- 
mance and adventure of the American 
Revolution, as that of Bruce or of 
Wallace with the marvels of the Scottish 
annals, was of French extraction. His 
grandfather was one of the emigrants who 
were driven from France by the policy to- 
ward the Protestants, or Huguenots, which marked 
the reign of Louis XIV. ; so different from the tole- 
rance of Henry IV. The date of the arrival of the 

(ix) 




10 LI F L: O F iM A R ION. 

Marion family in this country is fixed about the 
year 1690. The subject of our narrative was bom 
at Winyah, near Georgetown, in 1732; the same 
year, our attentive readers will note, in which George 
Washington was born. He is stated to have been 
the youngest of six children, five boys and a girl ; 
and his eccentric biographer, M. L. Weems, says 
of him, that in infancy he was a very puny little 
mortal indeed ; and that this delicate and insignifi- 
cant appearance continued until he reached his 
twelfth year. 

In that year, either the lad's own love of adven- 
ture, or the desire of his parents that he should try 
change of scene for the improvement of his health, 
or both causes combined, led to his attempting a 
trip to the West Indies. The name of the vessel in 
which he made this voyage is lost, as are also all the 
incidents of the adventure, except its unfortunate 
termination. At the time when the facts about this 
voyage could have been collected and preserved, 
nobody supposed that events in the life of Francis 
Marion would ever be of any interest, except to his 
immediate friends. But the course he pursued in 
private life, and his conduct in his personal con- 
cerns, and in his social relations, were such as fitted 
him for the eminent part he was afterward destined 
to take in the affairs of his country; and this is a 



LIFEOFMARION. 11 

lesson to all our young readers never to neglect their 
advantages, or slight their opportunities for improve- 
ment. There is no one of our young readers, male 
or female, who is not quite as likely to be called 
upon to act an important part as Francis Marion 
was ; and as the good book tells us that he who is 
faithful in little, is faithful also in much, we should 
always adopt as a motto, that whatever is worth 
doing at all, is worth doing well. 

" Going to sea" was, in 1740, a very different 
tiling from what it now is. There were dancrers, 
adventures, and interesting circumstances connected 
with it, which, in these days, are scarcely known. 
Navigation was more difficult, and less understood; 
the sea was infested with pirates, and different coun- 
tries were so little known, that he who had seen was 
supposed to hiojv; and the sailor of one short voyage 
was a personage of more consequence than the vet- 
eran navigator is now considered. These tempta- 
tions were quite enough to make young Francis 
desire very much the opportunity to try his fortune. 
Some accounts say that his mother did not at all 
favour the project ; and this we can the more readily 
believe, since mothers are proverbial for opposing 
the " truant disposition" in children ; and the expe- 
rience of many men will lead them to acknowledge 



12 LIFEOFIVIARION. 

that these kind though sometimes too timid advisers 
are usually not very far wrong. 

Master Francis, at any rate, discovered that going 
to sea is not always a recreation. Some accident 
occurred to the vessel in which he was, which caused 
her to " founder," as the sailors term it; which 
means, to leak so badly as to become unmanageable, 
and at length to sink. It is said that the schooner 
was struck by a large fish, probably a whale, with 
such violence as to start a plank. The water rushed 
in so rapidly at the leak thus made, that the crew 
took refuge in the boat, after trying by the pumps, 
in vain, to keep their vessel afloat. They had 
hardly abandoned her before she went down ; and 
that so suddenly that no opportunity remained to 
secure any water, or any provisions. 

In this terrible condition, with no other suste- 
nance than the body of a little dog, which they 
sacrificed to their hunger, they drifted about on the 
ocean. On the sixth or seventh day, or perhaps 
later, little Marion was taken out of the boat by a 
passing vessel — so far exhausted that he could not 
move a limb. Whether any of his companions sur- 
vived is not certainly known ; but as it is often the 
case that the young, and apparently feeble, survive 
where their elders perish, it is not at all improbable 
that Francis, the weak and delicate child, was the 



LIFKOFRIARION. 13 

only person of the crew who was taken from the 
boat aUve. The utmost care and tenderness was 
necessary on the part of his dehverers to fan and 
preserve the bare spark of Kfe ; and under the care 
of the sailors, w^ho, proverbially humane, are at such 
times excellent nurses, his life was saved. 

Having thus undergone the utmost intensity of 
suffering which he could endure, his mother found 
little trouble in inducing him to forego all farther 
attempts to become a sailor ; if, indeed, he did not 
relinquish the pursuit of his own accord, after expe- 
rience of its hardships. For the next twelve or four- 
teen years he was content with the tranquil life of a 
planter, though when the occasion and opportunity 
for more active life presented, he was not backward 
in improving them. We have no record of his life 
during the period that he spent with his mother and 
brothers, from the time of his shipwreck till his 27th 
year, when the Cherokee war broke out ; and can 
only conjecture that it was passed in the pursuits 
and amusements usual to the planters of that period. 
Tradition says that he was fond of his gun and 
fishing-rod, and uniformly kind to his dependants ; 
and the history of his life shows that he neglected 
no means of improvement which his situation 
afforded. A letter, preserved by Weems, which we 
shall presently quote, does honour no less to his heart 



14 L I F E O F M A II I O N . 

than to his head ; and goes, with the acts of his hfe, 
to show that war, with him, was not pursued for 
love of its sanguinary and cruel features. 

Marion first appeared as a warrior in the Indian 
campaigns of 1759 and 1761. Inattention to the 
pecuUar habits of the Indians, disregard of their 
feehngs and prejudices, and a want of consideration 
for their pecuhar pride, and their method of conduct- 
ing intercourse with the whites, had caused a disaf- 
fection ; and a disaffection once existing, small dif- 
ferences led to greater, and the colonists found 
themselves involved in an Indian war. It is not 
necessary for us to go into an examination of the 
particular causes of this difficulty. The general 
reasons which we have stated, and which will apply 
to nearly all the wars between the Indians and the 
colonists, will suffice. Nor is it just for us, with 
the results of their measures before us, to sit in 
judgment on the colonists. We cannot help ad- 
mitting the consequences of what they did into our 
calculation of their conduct ; but these consequences 
were the very things they could not know, when 
they were called upon to act. The history of the 
Indian relations of the colonists leaves Americans 
quite as much to deplore as to be proud of; for while 
we celebrate the fortitude of the founders of the re- 
public — women as well as men — we must lament 



LIFEOP MARION. ^ 15 

the narrowness of policy, to use no harsher term, 
which too often caused the disasters which called 
the courage of the settlers into exercise. 

Francis Marion was a volunteer in a troop of 
cavalry commanded by his brother, at the com- 
mencement of the Cherokee war, in 1759. In this 
campaign, however, nothing occurred which gave 
our hero any opportunity to distinguish himself. 
The savages were intimidated by the preparations 
which the Carolinians had made, and sent a deputa- 
tion to Charleston to compromise matters with the 
whites. Gov. Lyttleton seized these Indian com- 
missioners as hostages, and proceeded with them to 
the Indian country; subjecting them to the keen 
indignity of keeping them under a guard of soldiers, 
and in this way conducted them to the frontiers. As 
they were chiefs, and belonged to the best families 
among the Cherokees, this humiliation wounded 
the pride of the whole people. When the governor 
reached the frontiers, he would listen to overtures 
for peace only on one condition. That was that the 
Indians should give him twenty-four men, to be dis- 
posed of as he might think proper, retained as pri- 
soners, or put to death in retaliation for the same 
number of whites, who had been killed by the In- 
dians in border forays. 

Upon such conditions the treaty was concluded 



IG LIFEOF MARION. 

after much hesitation on the part of the Indians ; 
but no sooner had the nation heard what their chiefs 
had done, than all the young men, who feared that 
they might be surrendered in compUance with the 
terms of the treaty, made their escape ; and Gov. 
Lyttleton detained twenty-two of the hostages whom 
he had already wrongfully kept to make up the 
number of men who had been promised him by the 
treaty. 

Such a peace could lead only to war. The 
twenty-four hostages were placed for safe-keeping in 
a frontier fort ; and this fort was attempted by the 
savages, almost before the Governor had disbanded 
his forces. By a stratagem, the commander of the 
station. Col. Colymore, was killed, and two of his 
lieutenants were wounded. These officers had im- 
prudently granted the Indians an interview, the 
whites standing upon one bank of a river, and the 
Indians upon the other ; but the conversation had 
scarce commenced, when, at a signal from the In- 
dian chief, a party of savages suddenly made their 
appearance, and fired upon the whites, with the re- 
sult that we have already stated. In the fort, as the 
officer in command naturally supposed that this was 
but the signal for a general attack, orders were given 
to put the hostages in irons, lest they should rise 
and assist the enemy without. The Indians re- 



LIFE OF MARION. 17 

sisted, and stabbed three of the soldiers ; and the 
soldiers, already infuriated by the murder of their 
commander, fell upon the Indian hostages and put 
every one of them to death. 

Now, of course, all hope of peace or accommoda- 
tion was at an end. The Indians rose in all direc- 
tions, and banded together with purposes of furious 
vengeance. The danger of the colony was most im- 
minent. The savages rushed in upon the frontiers, 
butchering men, women, and children. The small- 
pox raged in Charleston to such a degree that most 
of the male inhabitants were both unable and un- 
willinor to leave their homes to g^o to the defence of 
their friends in the back settlements. But North 
Carolina and Virginia lent assistance, and a batta- 
lion and four companies of regular troops were sent 
forward from Canada to the assistance of the dis- 
tressed Carolinians. The country gentlemen of the 
colony rallied also, and it is said with every appear- 
ance of probability that Marion was among the 
number. No particulars have been handed down 
of his conduct in this campaign ; and it is therefore 
unnecessary for us to dwell upon it. It will be suf- 
ficient to say that it ended in a great battle, which 
was far from being decisive in its consequences, 
though the colonists were the victors. Several In- 
dian towns were burned, though few of the savages 

B 



18 LIFE OF MARION. 

were killed or made prisoners; and the Indians 
were rather exasperated than humbled. 

In 176i the Indians early commenced warlike 
operations; and reducing the frontier garrison of 
Fort Loudon, on the Tennessee, they took there a 
fearful revenge for the death of the Indian hostages 
who had been killed by the colonists at Prince 
George. Notwithstanding the formal surrender of 
the garrison at Fort Loudon, by which their lives 
were assured, the Indian conquerors massacred them 
every one. This deed removed still further every 
hope of reconciliation ; and the Indians were also 
operated upon by French emissacies, and supplied 
with arms by the same nation. The Carolinians 
lost no time'in taking vigorous measures to conduct 
a war which had now assumed the appearance of 
more danger than any which had before threatened 
the colony. 

In this campaign, beside the regular troops and 
the companies from sister colonies, a regiment of 
twelve hundred Carolinians was mustered into the 
service. In this regiment Marion was a lieutenant, 
and amonjT other names of officers dislinfmished 
afterwards in the war of the revolution, we find 
Moultrie, Laurens, Pickens, and Huger. The com- 
mand of the native regiment was held by Col. Mid- 
dleton, and that of the whole force devolved upon 



LIFE OF MARION. 19 

Col. James Grant. Beside the colonists and reo^u- 
lars, there were a body of friendly Indians in the 
little army, making its whole number twenty-six 
hundred. 

With this force, in June, Col. Grant penetrated 
the Indian country. Nothing occurred to interfere 
with his progress, until he reached the point near 
the Indian town of Etchoee, where the great battle 
of the preceding campaign had been fought. At 
this place was the principal, perhaps the only prac- 
ticable entrance into the Cherokee country, and here 
the Indians had mustered all their strength, to make 
ar desperate stand. It was necessary to force a nar- 
row and dark defile, which a few determined men 
could long defend against a large force. Lieut. 
Marion was sent forward with a party of thirty men 
to explore this dangerous pass ; and at the first fire 
of the Indians, twenty-one of his command were 
killed. In this perilous but honourcible service he 
justified the high opinion which had been enter- 
tained of his courage and skill ; and narrowly 
escaped with the life which was reserved for those 
important services to his country which fill so bright 
a page in her history. 

The coming up of the advance guard of the army 
preserved the remains of Marion's little band ; and 
the action now became Qreneral. The Cherokees 



20 LIFEOFMARION. 

contended with great valour and resolution; and 
witli so much skill that the impression prevailed 
that they were officered, in part at least, by French- 
men. The native Carolinian regiment, whose arms 
were rilles, and whose system of warfare was better 
adapted for bush-fighting than the discipline of the 
regulars, did terrible execution; while the English 
bayonets were most effectual in dislodging the 
Indians wherever a party made a stand. After a 
long-contested, and sanguinary engagement, the 
Indians gave way in despair. The town of Etchoee, 
abandoned by the inhabitants, was reduced to ashes ; 
and the English commander followed up the work 
by the destruction of fourteen other villages, and 
the burning of granaries, and all the standing corn. 
Marion deeply compassionated the sufferers by the 
devastations of the campaign ; and it was upon this 
occasion that he wrote the letter to which we have 
alluded, and from which we make the foUowinir 
extract : 

" We arrived at the Indian towns in the month 
of July. As the lands were rich, and the season 
had been favouraljle, the corn was bending under 
the double weight of lusty roasting ears, and pods 
of clustering beans. The furrows seemed to rejoice 
under their precious loads — the fields stood thick 
with bread. We encamped the first night in the 



LI FE O F M A R ION. 21 

woods, near the fields, where the whole army feasted 
on the young corn, which, with fat venison, made 
a most delicious treat. 

" The next morning we proceeded, by order of 
Colonel Grant, to burn the Indian cabins. Some 
of our men seemed to enjoy this cruel work, laugh- 
ing very heartily at the curling flames, as they 
mounted, loud-crackling, over the tops of the huts. 
But to me it appeared a shocking sight. * Poor 
creatures !' thought I, ' we surely need not grudge 
you such miserable habitations !' But when we 
came, according to orders, to cut down whole fields 
of corn, I could scarcely refrain from tears. For 
who could see the stalks that stood so stately, with 
broad green leaves, and gaily tasselled shocks, filled 
with sweet milky fluid, and flour, the staff" of life — 
who, I say, without grief, could see these sacred 
plants sinking under our swords, with all their 
precious load, to wither and die, untasted in their 
morning fields ! 

" I saw everywhere around the footsteps of the 
little Indian children, where they had lately played 
under the shelter of the ru^stling corn. No doubt 
they had often looked up with joy to the swelling 
shocks, and gladdened when they thought of their 
abundant cakes for the coming winter. When we 
are gone, thought I, they will return, and, peeping 



22 LIPEOP MARION. 

through the weeds with tearful eyes, will mark the 
ghastly ruin poured over their homes and happy 
fields, where they had so often played. ' Who did 
this V they will ask their mothers. ' The white 
people did it,' the mothers reply, 'the Christians 
did it.' " 

In this manner, Marion states, the army destroyed 
thousands of corn-fields. The Indians sued for 
peace, and the terrible ravages which the whites 
had inflicted secured their submission. The letter 
which we have inserted does the character of Marion 
more honour than a volume of military despatches 
could do ; and leads us to think that the object 
could have been obtained without this cruelty. 
However, as we have already remarked, we do not 
wish to undertake to decide upon the conduct of 
men in particular emergencies, into whose difiicul- 
ties of position we cannot fully enter. 



LIFEOFMARION. 23 



CHAPTER 11. 

Marion elected to the Provincial Congress — The Act of Association — 
Destruction of Tea and Stamped Paper — News of the Battle of Lex- 
ington — Measures of the Provincial Congress — Character of the 
Southern Warfare — Commissions of Marion and Horry — Their diffi- 
culties in raising Money, and ease in enlisting Men — Mischiefs of 
Intemperance — Marion's Rebuke to the Young Officer — His excel- 
lence as a Disciplinarian — His Promotion to a Majority — Tiie Defence 
of Fort Sullivan — British Loss — Loss of the Carolinians — Anecdotes 
of the Battle — Gallant conduct of Serjeant Jasper — Marion's Shot — 
Compliments to Serjeant Jasper. 



^OR the next fourteen years we hear 
nothing of the Ufe of Marion, except 
that he was quietly engaged in the 
pursuit of the ordinary occupations 
of a planter. His reputation among his 
fellow citizens may he judged by what 
his friend, General Horry, says of him. 
"Though he was neither handsome nor 
witty, nor wealthy, he was universally beloved. 
The fairness of his character — his fondness to his 
relations — his humanity to his slaves — and his 
bravery in the Indian war, — had made him the 
darling of the country." Both he and his brother 




24 L I F E O F M A 11 I O N . 

Job were elected to the Provincial Congress which 
assembled in 1775, to take into consideration the 
posture of the colony toward the mother country. 
This body adopted the American Bill of Rights, as 
set forth by the Continental Congress ; established 
committees of safety, and took other steps, commit- 
ting the colony to resistance against the encroach- 
ments of the mother country. And while these 
official and formal proceedings were going forward, 
the presence of the representatives in Charleston 
was marked by other acts not of so open a character. 
The royal armories in and near Charleston M-ere 
broken open, and their contents were removed, tea 
and stamped paper were forcibly seized and de- 
stroyed ; and other energetic steps, which the com- 
plexion of the times warranted, were taken to for- 
ward the great cause in which the patriots of South 
Carolina embarked. These transactions were not 
of a nature to permit the actors in them to be known ; 
but we can hardly doubt that our impulsive and 
ardent hero performed his part. 

After taking the initial steps to prepare for what- 
ever measures events might render necessary, the 
Provincial Congress adjourned, to re-assemble on 
the 20th of June. But the news of the battle of 
Lexington, received by express through the Com- 
mittees of Safety at the north, caused the Provincial 



LIFEOF MARION. 25 

Conorress of South Carolina to be called toorether on 
the ist of June. One of the first transactions of the 
Congress was to pass an Act of Association, binding 
the subscribers to union under every tie of religion 
and honor for the defence of their injured country, 
and engaging them to the sacrifice of life and for- 
tune to secure her freedom and safety. The instru- 
ment also declared those unfriendly to the liberties 
of the colonies who should refuse to subscribe their 
names to it. 

It is proper here to remind the young reader that 
the proportion of friends to the royal government 
was much greater in the Southern colonies than at 
the North. The reason for this was found in the 
fact that at the South there was really less personal 
reason for resistance to the po\^^er of the crown than 
in New England. The dispute and resistance ori- 
ginated in New England. The points in question 
afiected the Northern colonies much more than 
they did the Southern ; and the Southern colonies, 
South Carolina in particular, had received much 
more aid and benefit from the mother country than 
the Northern colonies did. Those wdio, in the 
South, espoused the cause of freedom, therefore, did 
it from sympathy with their fellow colonists, and 
from a respect for the great principles involved, 
more than from any direct and present interest in 



26 LIFEOF MARION. 

the quarrel. In such a state of things it is not 
remarkable that the proportion of loyalists should 
be greater in the Southern colonies than in the 
North. While we accord the credit of the highest 
patriotism to the Southern Whigs, the time is past 
when the Southern Tories, or loyalists, could be 
spoken of only with opprobrium. We can, indeed, 
now afford to be magnanimous, and to allow to the 
loyalists, as well as the patriots, the plea of acting 
from principle, and of being guided by motives 
which seemed to them good and sufficient. 

But the existence of a formidable loyal interest 
in the South o^ave the war there a far more sano;ui- 
nary character than at the North. Friend was 
arrayed against friend, — brother against brother, — 
child against parent, and parent against child. 

There is no hate hke love to hatred turned ; 

and we shall find, as we proceed in our narrative, 
many scenes at the recital of which the heart aches. 
War is always terrible in itself, however just the 
cause in which it is undertaken ; and there is no 
warfare more revolting than what is called a " ciyil 
war;" that is to say, one in which members of the 
same state and brothers of the same family draw the 
sword upon each other. In this view, our Southern 
brethren had much more to endure than the people 



LIPEOFMARION. 27 

of the North, who were united, almost to a man, 
asrainst a foreio^n foe. 

After the passage of the Act of Association, the 
Congress of South CaroUna proceeded immediately 
to active measures for the prosecution of the system 
of resistance to which their measures had committed 
the colony. On the fourth day of their session they 
passed an act for raising three regiments, two of 
infantry, and one of horse, making in all ahout two 
thousand men. A million of money was voted for 
the exigencies of the army. Non-subscribers to 
the Act of Association were made amenable to the 
General Committee, and their punishment was left 
discretionary with that body. The militia of the 
colony were required to be on duty as if the country 
were in a state of actual warfare; and by these 
vigorous and decisive steps it was made impossible 
for any citizen to remain neutral, or uncommitted. 
After a session of about twenty days, the Congress 
adjourned, having conferred its powers on the Gen- 
eral Committee and the Council of Safety. 

Now commences the active part of Marion's 
revolutionary career. On the 21st of June he was 
commissioned as Captain in the second regiment, 
under Colonel William Moultrie, his captain in the 
Cherokee campaign. In the same regiment Captain 
P. Horry also received a captain's commission. To 



28 LIFEOF MARION. 

this gentleman, himself a most efficient officer, an 
enthusiastic patriot, and a devoted friend of Marion's, 
we are indebted for most of the particulars of his 
life which have reached us. He furnished Mr. 
Weems with the particulars which that eccentric 
writer has preserved; and many other facts have 
reached us through Captain Horry's account of his 
own life, still unpublished, which Mr. Simms often 
refers to in his life of Marion. 

Captain Horry's account of the raising of his own 
company and that of Marion is very amusing. 
Hardly were they commissioned when they applied 
themselves to the work. The first thing necessary 
was money. They applied for a portion of the mil- 
lion that had been appropriated, but the money had 
been voted only, and not raised, and in that quarter 
our captains could not get " a single dollar." So, 
on Marion's suggestion, the two friends determined 
to borrow the money to war against Great Britain 
on their own credit. 

" Away went we," says Horry, " to borrow money 
of our friends in Charleston ; I mean hard money. 
And hard money it was indeed. The gold and 
silver all appeared as if it had caught the instinct 
of water-witches, diving, at the first flash of war, to 
the bottom of the usurers' trunks and strong boxes. 
For two whole days, and with every effort we could 



LIFE OF MARION. 29 

make, we collected but the pitiful sum of one hun- 
dred dollars ! However, fully resolved that nothing 
should stop us, we got our regimentals the next 
morning from the tailor's, and having crammed our 
saddle-baofs with some clean shirts, a stout luncheon 
of bread and cheese, and a bottle of brandy, we 
mounted, and with hearts light as young lovers on 
a courting scheme, we dashed off to recruit our com- 
panies." 

In a very short time the two captains filled up 
their complements of sixty men each. Both of them 
were well known in the tract which they selected 
for recruiting; and Marion, as we have already 
stated, was a great popular favourite. Among the 
munitions with which the two captains furnished 
their saddle-bags, the bottle of brandy will strike 
the present generation as a portion of the stores 
which might have been better omitted. At that 
day it was a common companion on all excursions 
of business and of pleasure, and though its mischiefs 
were by no means unperceived, nobody seemed to 
aim at the thorough and radical cure. The regi- 
ment in which Marion and Horry held their com- 
mand lost two officers, a captain and a lieutenant, 
before active service commenced, by the vice of 
intemperance. These were extreme cases, or they 
would not have been recorded. The indirect mis- 



/ 



30 LIFE OP MARION. 

chiefs and difficulties, which the "use of intoxicating 
drinks has caused in all armies, form no small part 
of the miseries of war. It leads to disobedience and 
impatience under discipline; and is a companion 
and abettor in all unsoldierlike conduct, and all 
inhuman sport. 

At the time of which we are writing, the barba- 
rous amusement of cock-fighting was very common 
in Carolina and other places, whence it is now ban- 
ished, by the common consent of all gentlemen. 
One of Marion's officers, anxious to participate in 
such amusements, came to his commander with a 
falsehood in his mouth, and asked a furlough of two 
or three days, on the pretence that he wished to 
visit a dying father. ' He stayed from duty two 
weeks, instead of two days, and visited the haunts 
of gamblers, instead of his parents. When he re- 
turned, and commenced a prevaricating apology, 
Marion, who knew the truth, interrupted him with 
the cutting answer : "Ah, is that you ! well, never 
mind, — we never missed you !" 

Marion had an excellent tact at discipline, and, 
as we shall perceive in the progress of his life, his 
immediate command was always celebrated for its 
excellent order and efficiency. He was indefati- 
gable in drilling his men, and as he never required 
of others more than he was himself willing to per- 



LIFEOF MARION. 31 

form, he raised them to a degree of mihtary skill 
which produced a most excellent effect upon all, 
by emulation. This trait in the military character 
of Marion is the more worthy of remembrance, be- 
cause the popular opinion has been that his disci- 
pline was lax, and that his men were more to be 
relied on for rude courage, than for good training. 
The raising of new regiments caused the promotion 
of Marion to a Majority. His friend Horry thus 
speaks of him in his new position : 

" His field of duties became, of course, much 
more wide and difficult, but he seemed to come for- 
ward to the discharge of them with the familiarity 
and alertness of one who, as General Moultrie used 
to say, was born a soldier. In fact, he appeared 
never so happy, never so completely in his element, 
as when he had his officers and men out on parade, 
at close training. And for cleanliness of person, 
neatness of dress, and gentlemanly manners, with 
celerity and exactness in performing their evolu- 
tions, they soon became the admiration and praise 
both of citizens and soldiers. And, indeed, I am 
not afraid to say that Marion was the architect of 
the second regiment, and laid the foundation of that 
excellent discipline, and confidence in themselves, 
wliich gained them such reputation whenever they 
were called to face their enemies." 



32 LIFEOF MARION. 

In March, 1776, the second regiment, under Col. 
Moultrie, was ordered to take post on Sullivan's 
Island, at the entrance of Charleston Harbour. The 
fort, when the regiment entered, existed only in 
name. The soldiers proceeded immediately to con- 
struct the defences, of palmetto logs, which had 
been rafted to the place. The interstices were filled 
in wdth sand ; and the works proved, upon trial, an 
excellent defence; though unfinished when the 
British fleet appeared at the entrance of the harbour. 
The garrison of the fort consisted of four hundred 
and thirty-five men. The cannon mounted were 
thirty-one in number ; nine French twenty-sixes, 
six English eighteens, nine twelve, and seven nine- 
pounders. 

The British fleet consisted of nine vessels, under 
command of Sir Peter Parker. Of these, two were 
fifty gun ships, five carried twenty-eight guns each, 
and one twenty-six ; the other was a bomb-vessel. 
On the 20th of June, these vessels anchored before 
the fort, with springs on their cables, and com- 
menced a bombardment. The fire from the ships 
was promptly answered ; but the ammunition in the 
fort was carefully husbanded. In this, as in many 
of the battles of the revolution, the Americans 
laboured under the^ disheartening disadvantage of a 
scarcity of ammunition. Had the supply of pow- 



LIFEOF MARION. 33 

der in the fort been ample, the British fleet must 
have been destroyed. The field officers in person 
trained the guns, and almost every shot from the 
fort did execution. On board the British vessels 
the loss was severe. The commodore's ship, the 
Bristol, had 44 men killed, and a large number 
wounded, Sir Peter Parker himself losing an arm. 
The other fifty gun ship had 57 men killed and 30 
wounded. On board the smaller vessels the loss 
was not severe, as tlie guns of the fort were prin- 
cipally directed against the larger craft. One of 
the smaller vessels of the lieet ran aground and was 
burnt ; and the whole nine were severely shattered 
in hulls and ritraino-. 

The Carolinians lost twelve men killed, and 
twenty-four wounded. Among the killed was Ser- 
jeant Macdonald. The loss of this gallant soldier 
was deeply felt ; as he had endeared himself to his 
comrades by all the virtues which ennoble the man 
and the soldier. As he was borne from the gun, in 
directing which he received his mortal wound, he 
cried, " I die — but do not let the cause of liberty 
die with me !" 

During the battle the men displayed the coolness 
of veterans, and the enthusiasm of patriots. The 
Americans, on this, as on other occasions, conducted 
themselves like men who were in arms not for hire, 

c 



34 r, I F E O F M A n I O N . 

but in defence of their country ; soldiers who had 
taken up the sword from principle, and were deter- 
mined not to disgrace themselves or the cause in 
which they had embarked. It required no ordinary 
degree of courage to face an enemy of whose skill 
and valour many of them had seen such wonder- 
ful proofs when fighting with them, side by side, 
against the Indians^ and the French ; and the im- 
mense responsibility which the colonies were incur- 
ring in engaging in war with the country which 
they were accustomed to consider invincible, must 
have forced itself upon the thoughts of the reflect- 
ing. The position which they held that day was 
by no means a good one. So little safe, with any 
ordinary defenders, was it considered, that General 
Charles Lee, who had been despatched by Congress 
to the command of the southern army, would have 
abandoned Fort Sullivan as untenable, even before 
the arrival of the fleet, if he had not been overruled 
by the advice of the colonial officers. The stand 
that day made had a most inspiriting influence upon 
the spirits of the country ; and the defence of Fort 
Sullivan forms one of the brightest pages in the 
history of the Revolution. 

There are two interesting anecdotes relative to 
this battle, which we must not omit. The flag of 
the fort floated from a high mast, against which the 



LIFE OP MARION. 35 

enemy directed their fire, until it was shattered and 
fell over the ramparts upon the beach. Serjeant 
Jasper leaped over, and walking the whole length 
of the fort in the face of the enemy's fire, and de- 
taching the flag, fastened it to a sponge-staff with a 
cord, and planted the staff" on the ramparts. 

The last shot on this day is ascribed to Marion. 
Just at sunset, as the British ships were slipping 
their cables, and moving out of the range of fire 
from the fort, a cannon having just been charged, 
Marion took the match, and caused the piece to be 
aimed at the commodore's ship. The ball entered 
the cabin, where two young officers were taking 
some refreshment, and killing both, glanced thence 
upon the main deck, where, in its course, it killed 
three sailors, and then passed through the side of 
the vessel into the sea. This remarkable occur- 
rence was narrated by some sailors who deserted 
from the commodore's vessel on the niorht folio wino^ 
the engagement. 

On the next day after the battle abundant refresh- 
ments were sent down to the fort from Charleston, 
and on the second day the governor and council, 
and many of the principal residents of Charleston 
paid the soldiers a visit. The guests were received 
in due form, and the soldiers were highly compli- 
mented by their guests, as they deserved to be, for 



30 LIFEOF MARION. 

their gallant conduct. The regiment was presented 
with a superb stand of colours by Mrs. Barnard 
Elliott, which were delivered, as of right, into the 
charge of Serjeant Jasper, who promised never to 
surrender them but with his life. To the same 
brave fellow Governor Rutledge presented his own 
sword. He also offered the Serjeant a lieutenant's 
commission on the spot, but Jasper modestly but 
absolutely refused it. He had never learned to 
read or write, and feared that he was not fit, thus 
ignorant, to associate with officers. 



LIFEOP MARION. 37 



CHAPTER III. 

Effects of the Successful Defence of Fort Sullivan — Evil Influences of 
a condition of Suspense — Serjeant Jasper — His Talent at Disguises, 
and Visits to the Enemy — His first call upon his Brother in the British 
Army — His Second Trip, with a Companion — A Party of American 
Prisoners broug-ht into the British Camp — Their Distress — Jasper and 
Newton determine to liberate them — They follow, and by a Surprise 
conquer their Guard, killing- four, and making the others Prisoners — 
ni-advised Operations against Savannah — Repulse of the Americans, 
and Death of the brave Serjeant Jasper. 



FTER the brilliant defence of Fort 
Sullivan, since called Fort Moultrie, 
in honour of the gallant officer com- 
manding, little of much interest oc- 
curs in the life of Marion, or, indeed, in the 
history of South Carolina, for three years. 
The defence of Fort Sullivan was, in its 
consequences, most important. It secured 
the State against invasion for three years, and thus 
postponed the horrors of war in a district of country 
where the people were divided. But the State by 
no means escaped all the disadvantage of a condi- 
tion of things by which government was in a great 




38 LIFEOF MARION. 

degree suspended. Industry languished, since peo- 
ple could not, in a state of such uncertainty, apply 
themselves to their ordinary pursuits, or count upon 
the usual rewards of labour. Dissolute liabits took 
root, and the foundation was laid for the subsequent 
partisan warfare, in which, as has been forcibly 
remarked, Whigs and Tories pursued and hunted 
each other with the ferocity of demons. While 
estimating the cost of the ]x>litical privileges with 
which our happy country is blessed, and the secu- 
rity and comfort in which we now live, under our 
well-established laws and institutions, Ave should not 
forget the terrors and sufferings of the state of 
anarchy to which the colonists were so much 
exposed, in many parts of the country, during the 
long years through which the contest for indepen- 
dence extended. 

Before resuming the life of Marion and his active 
services, the reader will be interested in learning 
something more of the feats of Serjeant Jasper, of 
whom we heard in the last chapter. Little more, 
unfortunately, remains to be said of him, since his 
chivalric and heedless courage early brought him 
to the end of his life and services. The Seijeant 
had a brother who was as brave as himself, and to 
whom he was very much attached. This brother 
was not a republican, but a loyalist, and was as 



LIFEOFMARION. 39 

highly esteemed for his courage and manly qualities 
in the British service, as the Serjeant was in the 
American army. It was not uncommon for bro- 
thers to be thus divided in opinion, but it was not 
usual for them to retain their affection for each 
other, as the two Jaspers did. 

The Serjeant possessed a wonderful capacity for 
disguising his appearance, and counterfeiting char- 
acter. He dehg-hted in the dani^erous duties of a 
scout or spy, penetrating often the enemy's camp or 
garrison, at the hazard of his life, and discovering 
their force, their intentions, and all other particulars 
which it was useful or necessary for the Americans 
to know, and not unfrequently bringing back with 
him prisoners or deserters. So complete was Jasper 
in the arts of strategy, that his superior officers 
allowed him the privilege of selecting companions 
from the brigade, and going out on excursions 
whenever he chose, and returning when he thought 
fit. The reader will readily perceive that this was 
placing very high confidence in his patriotism ; for 
being unquestioned and unsuspected, he had it in 
his power to play the traitor. If he had been a 
man like Arnold, for instance, and willing to sacri- 
fice his country to his own selfish purposes, he 
would have had abundant opportunity to do great 
mischief Uprightness and honour confer a truer 



40 LIFEOP MARION. 

nobility "upon the humblest man, than any rank or 
birth can invest him with, who is destitute of these 
high attributes. 

Though Serjeant Jasper had the privilege of 
taking as many men with him as he chose, he sel- 
dom took more than six. Col. Moultrie, in his Me- 
moirs, says : " He often went out, and returned with 
prisoners, before I knew that he was gone. I have 
known of his catching a party that was looking for 
him. He has told me that he could have killed 
single men several times, but he would not; he 
would rather let them get off. He went into the 
British lines, as a deserter, at Savannah, complain- 
ing at the same time of our ill-usage of him ; he 
was gladly received (they having heard of his char- 
acter) and caressed by them. He stayed eight days, 
and, after informinor himself well of their strenirth, 
situation and intentions, he returned to us again ; 
but that game he could not play a second time. 
With his little party he was always hovering about 
the enemy's camp, and frequently bringing in 
prisoners." 

The particular feat which has made Serjeant Jas- 
per more celebrated than any other, we will now 
relate. His brother was in the British srarrison at 
a place called Ebenezer. He was more astonished 
than pleased to see the Serjeant in the camp ; for 



LIFEOFMARION. 41 

Serjeant Jasper was so well known that his brother 
was terribly alarmed lest he should be seized at 
once and hung as a spy. The Serjeant, however, 
told him not to be alarmed, for he was no longer an 
American soldier, and he told this story with such 
an appearance of sincerity, that his brother believed 
him. By the rules of war, falsehood, in a case like 
this, where a man is spying upon the enemy, has 
always been considered allowable; and, whatever 
we may think of the moral character of such a pro- 
ceeding, it is certain that Serjeant Jasper saw no- 
thing but a justifiable artifice in it. His brother 
was delighted at the change, and told him at once 
that, such was his reputation, he could have a com- 
mission in the British army. The Serjeant did not 
wish to carry the deception any farther than would 
answer his present purpose ; and declined to enter 
the royal army. He said that though he saw little 
encouragement to fight for his country any longer, 
he could not find it in his heart to fight against her. 
After lengthening his visit to two or three days, 
long enough to discover all that was to be learned, 
he pretended that he was going to remove to a part 
of the country where he should not be obliged to 
participate at all in the war, and left his brother 
under that impression. He started off in such a 
direction that his brother should not suspect what 



42 LIFEOF MARION. 

were his intentions, and, by a very circuitous and 
round-about road, returned to the American camp, 
and reported all that he had seen. But there was 
nothing going forward, and Jasper, wearied with 
idleness, determined, after two or three weeks, to 
make another visit to his brother — a most hazardous 
enterprise, and one which a man less bold and less 
crafty than Serjeant Jasper would not have dared 
to undertake. 

On his second visit, he took with him another 
Serjeant, whose name was Newton. His friend, in 
personal strength and courage and cunning, was 
very nearly equal to Jasper himself His unsus- 
pecting brother was very glad to see him ; and it is 
very likely that, on this second visit, he made him- 
self the more welcome by giving pretended informa- 
tion about the American army. The part of a spy 
is a very difficult as well as dangerous one, and 
requires a great deal of art and invention, and per- 
fect presence of mind. 

How well the two Serjeants played their part 
may be judged from the fact that they spent two or 
three days unsuspected in the British camp. On 
the third day, the loyalist Jasper told his brother 
that he had some bad news for him. Both brothers 
appear to have been kind-hearted and humane ; and 
the bad news was that several American prisoners 



LIFEOP MARION. 43 

had been brought into camp that morning, and 
were on their way to Savannah for trial. What 
made their case peculiarly dangerous was that they 
were men who, having enlisted in the British army, 
had deserted and joined their countrymen ; and the 
custom of war is to hang deserters. There seemed, 
indeed, little chance for these poor fellows. 

Serjeant Jasper asked to see them, and his bro- 
ther took him and his friend Newton to visit the 
prisoners. Weems gives a very touching descrip- 
tion of their appearance, probably as it was related 
by Jasper himself to Major Horry, who supplied 
Weems with his facts. We copy it, as one of the 
best specimens of a curious writer's style — border- 
ing upon the bombastic, but much less extravagant 
than this writer generally is, and really affecting : 

" Indeed it was a mournful sight to behold them, 
where they sat, poor fellows ! all hand-cuffed on the 
ground. But all pity of them was forgot, soon as 
the eye was turned to a far more doleful sight hard 
by, which was a young woman, wife of one of the 
prisoners, with her child, a sweet little boy of about 
five years old. Her humble garb showed her to be 
poor, but her deep distress, and her sympathy with 
her unfortunate husband, showed that she was rich 
in that pure conjugal love, that is more precious 
than all gold. 



44 LIFEOF MARION. 

" She generally sat on the ground opposite to her 
husband, with her little boy leaning on her lap, and 
her coal-black hair spreading in long-neglected 
tresses on her neck and bosom. And thus in silence 
she sat, a statue of grief, sometimes with her eyes 
fixed hard upon the earth, like one lost in thought, 
sighing and groaning the while, as if her heart 
would burst ; — then starting, as from a reverie, she 
would dart her eager eyes, red with weeping, on 
her husband's face, and there would gaze, with 
looks so piercing sad, as though she saw him strug- 
gling in the halter, herself a widow, and her son an 
orphan. Straight her frame would begin to shake 
with the rising agony, and her face to change and 
swell ; then, with eyes swimming in tears, she 
would look round upon us all, for pity and for help, 
wdth cries sufficient to melt the heart of a demon ; 
while the child, seeing his father's hands fast bound, 
and his mother weeping, added to the distressing 
scene, by his artless cries and tears." 

How such a spectacle as this would affect men 
like Jasper and Newton, ardent in patriotism — and 
in sympathy with the prisoners — fond of adventure, 
and deliffhtino: in that which seemed most difficult, 
will readily be imagined. Each silently made up 
his determination ; and when they found a mo- 
ment's opportunity to interchange their thoughts, 



LIFEOFMARION. 45 

the consultation was brief. It was only the mutual 
expression of a pledge to liberate the unfortunate 
men, or die in the bold attempt. 

The prisoners were soon on their way to Savan- 
nah, under a guard of eight men, with a serjeant 
and corporal. The two friends left the camp in a 
different direction, to avoid suspicion ; a precaution 
which it would certainly seem hardly needful to be 
taken ; for who could have suspected two unarmed 
men of an intention to attack ten soldiers? The 
full difficulty of their enterprise did not occur to 
Jasper and Newton, until they had made a circuit 
and overtaken the party. They followed and 
watched them, unperceived, for several miles, dis- 
covering no opportunity to attempt a rescue. Within 
two miles of Savannah is a spring, which was then 
a stopping-place for travellers, and is now an object 
of great interest to the visitor, as the scene of one 
of the most chivalrous deeds of the Revolution, 
The two friends, as a last hope, trusted that the 
guard would stop here to refresh themselves and 
their prisoners; and, making a short cut through 
the woods, they arrived on the ground first, and 
waited there in ambush. 

They had not long waited, when the melancholy 
procession came in sight. The guard, now in view 
of Savannah, felt the responsibility of their charge 



46 L I F E O F M A R I O N . 

almost at an end, and naturally relaxed a caution 
which had not been increased by any movement of 
the heart-broken prisoners. Their sad march had 
been undisturbed by any sight or sound of danger ; 
and undoubtedly the wailing of the ^vretched wife 
and mother had communicated to the soldiers a 
compassionate share in the distress of the captives. 
The latter knew that the form of trial through 
which they were to go would be summary and 
pitiless ; and that but one fate, and that sudden and 
ignominious, awaited men who having enlisted in 
the royal army, had deserted, and were captured 
with arms in their hands. 

The corporal, with four men, conducted the pri- 
soners toward the spring, near which the unhappy 
party sank down on the ground to rest. The un- 
happy wife seated herself, as usual when the party 
rested, opposite her husband ; and the unconscious 
babe, wearied with the journey, fell into the peace- 
ful sleep of ignorance in her arms. The Serjeant's 
four men grounded their arms and brought up the 
rear. Two of the corporal's men stood guard over 
the prisoners, the other two, resting their muskets 
against a tree, proceeded leisurely to drink at the 
spring, and, having filled their canteens afresh, had 
turned toward the prisoners to give them water. 

" Now, Newton !" said Jasper hurriedly. In an 



L r F E O F i^I A R I O N . 47 

instant the two friends sprang together to the tree 
where the muskets stood — seized them, and shot 
down the two soldiers who stood as guard. The 
Serjeant and corporal, the only ones of the soldiers 
who recovered their presence of mind in the panic 
of the attack, sprang forward to take up the loaded 
muskets of the dead men — but before they could 
use the arms Jasper and Newton felled them to the 
ground with their clubbed muskets, and seizing the 
loaded ones themselves, sprung to the place where 
the other four guns stood and summoned the other 
soldiers to surrender. They instantly complied — 
no more blood was shed, and Jasper and Newton, 
wrenching the handcuffs from the prisoners' hands, 
furnished them each with a loaded musket, and six 
of the ten men who had formed the prisoners' guard 
were marched away to the American camp as pri- 
soners, to the great astonishment of the American 
army, and no less to their own surprise. The 
woman whose husband had been thus snatched 
from death, was no less frantic in her joy than she 
had been in her sorrow. 

This truly wonderful adventure has made Jasper 
and Newton's names famous for ever. It is so sur- 
prising that, without w^eighing all the circumstances, 
it would seem incredible. In the first place, we 
must recollect that the two friends had undertaken 



48 LIFEOF MARION. 

a deed so desperate that they moved with the sud- 
denness and boldness of giants. With them it was 
"do or die," and there was no time for thought or 
hesitation. The soldiers, as we have said, dreamed 
of no attack so near the city of Savannah, which 
was held by the British. The suddenness of the 
surprise threw them into confusion, and its boldness 
made them think, no doubt for a moment, that a 
large party had surrounded them. They probably 
had no time to observe that only two men had 
attacked them, until it was too late to remedy the 
mistake. 

The American arms were not very successful at 
this period of the w^ar in the South, though the 
bravery of the patriotic soldiers, and their spirited 
resistance to a much superior force are deserving of 
high credit, as they accomplished much real, if not 
brilliant service. The British, having taken Sa- 
vannah, and overrun Georgia, penetrated as far as 
Beaufort, where the American troops, under Col. 
Moultrie, checked his advance. The result was a 
spirited battle, without positive advantage to either 
party. The British General, Prevost, intended to 
seize Charleston by a coup de main, but Moultrie 
succeeded in reaching the place before him, and 
placed it in as good a state of defence as the few 
hours he was in advance would permit. The British 



LIFE OP MARION. 49 

advance was received with a volley from the Ame- 
rican lines ; and Prevost, after summoning the place 
to surrender, and being answered with a defiance, 
withdrew to the neighbouring islands, and thence 
to Beaufort and Savannah, where they made a 
stand. On the islands the British were vigorously 
and gallantly attacked, and their retreat was, if not 
absolutely forced, at least rendered expedient. 

In September, 1779, the French Admiral ap- 
peared off Savannah, and the American forces 
were concentrated, under General Lincoln, for an 
attack on that city, to be made in conjunction with 
the French fleet and soldiers. But Count D'Es- 
taing made this enterprise abortive, by a singular 
error of judgment. After summoning Savannah to 
surrender, he allowed the commander twenty-four 
hours in which to consider of his answer. To use 
the language of General Horry, "instead of thinking, 
like simpletons, they fell to entrenching like brave 
soldiers," and, of course, the next day the answer 
returned by General Prevost was, that he had deter- 
mined to defend the city. 

The Americans, and particularly those accus- 
tomed, like Marion, to the prompt movements of 
irregular warfare, considered these proceedings on 
the part of the formal, and, in this instance, foolish 
Count D'Estaing, as perfect madness. Marion is 

D 



50 LIFEOF MARION. 

represented to have been so provoked, that his 
friends feared he would even have set disciphne at 
defiance, and " broken out" upon Gen. Lincoln. 
Usually a man of few words, and not in the habit 
of venting his feelings aloud, he exclaimed, " Who 
ever heard of anything like this before ! Fi7'st 
allow an enemy to entrench, and then fight him ! 
See the destruction brought upon the British at 
Bunker's Hill — yet our troops there were only 
militia; — raw, half-armed clodhoppers — and not a 
mortar or carronade — not even a swivel — only their 
ducking guns ! What, then, are we to expect from 
regulars, completely armed, with a choice train of 
artillery, and covered with a breastwork !" 

In this instance, as in many others where the 
opinions of Americans were overruled by foreign 
allies, the result justified the anticipations of the 
American officers and soldiers. The French com- 
mander was ambitious of the eclat of a real and 
formal siege, and seems, if contemporary accounts 
be true, to have desired that the enemy should have 
all the advantage of position which would confer 
consequence upon a victory which he felt confident 
of winning. After several days of noisy but inef- 
fectual bombardment, during the whole of which 
time we may presume the British were strengthen- 
ing their position, an assault was determined upon. 



LIFE OF MARION. 51 

This measure, taken at the first, would have carried 
the city — but served, when tardily resorted to, only 
to exhibit the gallantry of Americans and French, 
in the frightful loss of eleven hundred men. The 
repulse was effectual and decisive. The French 
allies withdrew to their ships, and shortly after left 
the coast, as the season when it was perilous for 
ships to remain was at hand; the action having 
taken place on the 9th of October. 

The 2d Carolina regiment (Marion's) particularly 
distinguished itself by bravery and by loss of men. 
Among those who fell was the gallant Serjeant 
Jasper. The Americans, headed by Col. Laurens — 
more successful than the French — planted the 
colours of the 2d regiment on the enemy's works ; 
but this success was the occasion of their principal 
loss, for in endeavouring, after the retreat was 
sounded, to secure the colours of the regiment, the 
greatest slaughter took place. Serjeant Jasper 
received his mortal wound in the defence of the 
standard; and .Serjeant Bush, who shared the trust 
with him, was killed upon the spot. In this en- 
gagement also, fell Count Pulaski ; and several men 
of note in the French column. D'Estaing, who 
had the redeeming quality of courage with his 
obstinacy, performed personal prodigies of valour — 
but these could offer no atonement for the lives which 



52 L I F E O F M A R I O N . 

his imprudence had sacrificed, or for the enduring 
disasters which this defeat entailed upon the cause of 
freedom in the Soutiiern States, and, indeed, upon the 
whole country ; for who can say how signal would 
have been the effect of so great a victory as that 
which seemed almost sure, when the French fleet 
first made its appearance on our Southern coast. 



LIFEOF MARION. 63 



CHAPTER IV. 

Withdrawal of the French Fleet from Savannah, and the American 
Forces from Georgia — Preparations for the Defence of Charleston — 
Marion as a Militia Commander — Accident by which he was Dis- 
abled — Fall of Charleston — Disingenuous and cruel course of the 
British — Disregard of the Terms of Capitulation — Melancholy Story 
of Colonel Hayne. 

ARION was entirely unharmed in 
body in the assault upon Savannah, 
though in mind he deeply suffered, 
at the misfortune which had befallen 
the cause in which he was enlisted, 
and at the loss of the brave fellows who had 
been his comrades in arms. And yet, to 
this defeat he owes that romantic glory 
which has identified his name for ever with the 
chivalry of the Revolution. The withdrawal of the 
American army, and the almost complete surrender 
of his native State to the enemy, opened to him the 
field in which he won his brightest laurels. For a 
long time the rallying point of the few faithful and 
bold, he kept alive the fire of resistance ; and the 
" rebellion," as the British termed it, may be said 




54 LIFE OF MARION. 

to have been almost individualized in him. Daring 
in courage, deep in stratagem, wily in approach, 
and an adept in concealment, his enterprises were 
seldom unsuccessful. Amid all the bustle and stir 
of his adventures — all their temptation to sanguinary- 
revenge, and all the provocation to retaliating bar- 
barity upon the British and their Tory allies — it is 
above all else delightful to find that he was not only 
humane himself, and as far as possible sparing of 
blood and careful to avoid wanton destruction, but 
his influence over his followers maintained to a 
striking degree the better features of partisan war- 
fare, without its barbarities. To this portion of his 
life we are soon to introduce the reader. 

In January, the greater part of the American 
troops were withdrawn to Charleston, a place which 
it was considered of great consequence to preserve 
from the enemy. As it was now seriously threat- 
ened with attack, a camp was established at Bacon's 
Bridge, on Ashley River, for the reception of the 
militia, who had been summoned for the defence of 
the capital of the State. Hither Marion was de- 
spatched to drill and discipline these new recruits ; 
for in this description of service he was unexcelled. 
He could enter into their feelings, and appreciate 
their conduct ; and, while he did not exact impossi- 
bihties of them, he led them to perform feats which, 



,^ 




L I F E O F M A R I O N . 55 

at this day, seem almost incredible. He knew, 
understood and reconciled himself to the difference 
between citizen volunteers and regularly trained 
soldiers; and was celebrated for what was called 
his '■'■'patience with the militia''' In other words, he 
treated tliem as men ; while it is generally the case 
with military officers that they regard the militia 
with contempt. 

It is related by Major Horry, that when, at one 
time, he complained of his men, Marion answered 
with a smile : " Pshaw ! It is because you do not 
understand the management of them. You com- 
mand militia; it will not do to expect too much 
from that sort of soldiers. If, on turning^ out ao^ainst 
the enemy, you find your men in high spirits, with 
burning eyes all kindling round you, that's your 
time ! Then, in close columns, with sounding 
bugles, and shining swords, dash on, and I '11 war- 
rant your men will follow you, eager as lions' 
wdielps. But, on the other hand, if tiiey get dis- 
mayed, and begin to run, you are not to fly in a 
passion with them, and show yourself as mad as 
they are cowardly. No, you must learn to run, as 
fast as they and faster too, that you may get into 
the front and encourage them to rally." 

Such was the spirit which Marion carried into 
the training of his militia ; such the mode of man- 



56 LIPEOFMARION. 

agement by which he made them invincible. He 
reasoned correctly that the same details of duty 
were not to be expected from them as from regular 
troops, or the same steadiness at all times which 
may be expected from veterans. He enjoyed fully 
their confidence — shared in all their privations, and 
braved more than his share of their dangers. 

When active services were needed for the defence 
of Charleston, Marion marched in with his troops. 
In this post of danger and honour, however, acci- 
dent deprived him of the opportunity of distin- 
guishing himself; and the same accident undoubt- 
edly saved his services to his country for the time 
when they were most needed, and most effective. — 
The wealthy citizens of Charleston, with Southern 
cordiality, pressed numerous civilities upon the 
American officers. Marion was dining with a party 
of friends, when the host, in a fashion of showing 
his hospitality then common, now obsolete or fast 
becoming so, turned a key upon his guests. This 
was to force them to spare neither his own wine nor 
their own heads. Marion, always temperate, was 
not disposed to submit to such conditions ; nor, on 
the other hand, could he offer rudeness to a man 
whose politeness, however irksome, was well- 
intended, and borne out by the tyrant custom. He 
had, however, as little desire to witness the orgies 



LIFEOFMARION. 57 

of others as to partake himself; and, in making his 
escape at a window, effected it at the cost of a 
broken ancle. The apartment was on the second 
story, and the injury so severe that our hero w^as 
for a long time not only imfitted for the duties of 
war, but incapacitated for any bodily exercise. We 
may readily conceive how much a mind so sensitive 
as his would be afflicted by an accident which the 
unfriendly could so readily misrepresent. Nor 
would his repugnance against partaking of the beve- 
rage so readily abused be at all diminished by a 
calamity in which he was made an innocent suf- 
ferer. 

Marion returned to his residence in St. John's 
Parish ; General Lincoln having issued an order for 
the retirement from the city of all supernumerary 
officers, and all officers unfit for duty. The defence 
of Charleston was, for six weeks, most manfully 
maintained ; and the city fell, at last, rather by the 
exhaustion of provisions and military stores, than 
by the arms of the enemy. 

The darkest i^age in the whole history of British 
arms in America, is that which records the policy 
of the English commanders, after the fall of Charles- 
ton. So dispiriting was this event to the Americans, 
that the whole State of South Carolina may be said 
to have resigned itself at once ; and almost without 



58 LIFE OF MARION. 

a pretence at resistance. The irresolute and vacil- 
lating, considering all as lost, came at once into an 
adhesion to the royal cause. The Whigs, every- 
where dispirited, made a secret of their preferences, 
or feigned submission ; while the Tories, embold- 
ened by the turn affairs had taken, now became 
openly violent. Private animosities were gratified 
by inviting the torch and bayonet upon fellow citi- 
zens; and the sulferings of the unhappy country 
were extreme. But the very barbarity with which 
the loyalists proceeded, secured their final over- 
throw. Mildness and conciliation might have com- 
pleted the victory which commenced at the repulse 
at Savannah, and seemed only sealed by the fall of 
Charleston. Barbarity and rapine exasperated those 
whom they were intended to break and humble ; 
and the madness of the victors awakened patriotism 
in hearts which had else hardly felt its glow. 

Sir Henry Clinton was, after the fall of Charles- 
ton, succeeded m the command by Earl Cornwallis. 
Before Sir Henry was superseded he issued a pro- 
clamation, offering, with a few exceptions, pardon 
to the inhabitants for their past "treasonable 
offences," and holding out the fair promise of " rein- 
statement in all their rights and immunities." Nay, 
more was promised than they had before enjoyed ; 
for while the riirht to tax the colonies without their 



L I F E O P M A R I O N . 59 

consent was the main point in dispute when the 
war commenced, Sir Henry's treacherous procla- 
mation waived even this, and promised exemption 
from taxation, except by their own legislatures. 

The timid, the time-serving and the irresolute 
seized upon these admissions : in all but the excep- 
tion of certain persons from pardon, the proclama- 
tion seemed, to some, rather the concessions of the 
vanquished than the magnanimity of the victors. 
All hoped for security and peace — at least from their 
Tory neighbours — and many looked at the British 
power rather as an armed mediator between con- 
tending factions, than as a conquering foreign foe. 
Declarations of alles^iance to the crown were sisrned 
by many, including some of the most active Whigs 
in the colony; and, under protection, these persons 
returned to their plantations. Others were dis- 
missed on their parole, as prisoners of war. The 
hope of escaping further bloodshed, and the belief 
that they should not be required to mingle again in 
the strife, seduced many into the signature of the 
declaration. They saw no hope in fighting for 
their country ; and trusted to the promise, implied, 
and universally understood, if not distinctly ex- 
pressed, that they would not be required to take up 
arms against her. The Tories resorted to the arti- 
fice of circulating the rumour that Congress had 



60 LIFEOP MARION. 

decided no longer to contend for the States of South 
CaroUna and Georgia, but purposed to resign them 
to the British rule. All these causes, operating 
with the weariness and disgust of war, and the 
desire for peace to which the disasters and troubles 
of the time gave rise, operated to produce a mo- 
mentary moral conquest and disarming of the 
patriots. 

But the dream of peace was of short duration. 
The most charitable explanation of the events that 
followed is, that Coruwallis disapproved of the 
policy which Sir Henry Clinton had indicated, and 
saw, or imagined that he saw a necessity for chang- 
ing it. There are those, however, who deem the 
conduct of the conquerors to have been treacherous 
and deceitful from the beginning, and who maintain 
that the first proclamation was conceived in trea- 
chery. However that may have been, there is suffi- 
cient of guilt in the non-fulfilment of promises 
honestly made — sufficient of treachery in wresting 
words from their meaning, in which the unsuspect- 
ing Carolinians had trusted, and sufficient of cruelty 
in the barbarous and mocking murders and burn- 
ings which marked the course of Earl Comwallis, 
and the subordinates who acted in his spirit, and 
fulfilled his instructions. 

A month had not passed from the date of Sir 



LIFEOP MARION. 61 

Henry's proclamation, when Cornwallis issued an- 
otiier, which rendered the first a nuUity. Nay, 
worse than that — it closed the door of escape against 
those who had been beguiled into security by the 
first document, and drew tight about them the 
meshes of a snare, in which many fell by an igno- 
minious death. The fate of the gallant and unfor- 
tunate Hayne is an episode belonging to this part 
of our history, sufficiently moving and awful in its 
details to furnish reason for the bitter hate which 
more than one generation cherished against Great 
Britain. Such are the lasting horrors of war. 
Conducted on the most chivalrous and generous 
principles, it leaves sufficient rancour behind ; but 
when perfidy, mock-trials, and the gibbet or the 
tree, come in as counsellors and aids, the hatred 
which the most favourable peace leaves behind it is 
neither unnatural nor surprising, however intense 
and lasting. 

Having alluded to the melancholy story of Colo- 
nel Hayne, we may here diverge a little from the 
strict order of our narrative to relate it. He was 
one of the defenders of Charleston, and when that 
city fell returned to his plantation. The terms of 
the capitulation secured, or professed to secure, the 
persons and property of the Americans, restricting 
them, of course, from bearing arms against the 



62 L I F E O F M A R I O ."V . 

British. There were early indications that the 
terms of the capitulation were not to he kept, and 
Colonel, then Captain Hajne, was required hy the 
commander of the British forces stationed near him, 
either to take up arms as a British suhject, or to 
report himself at Charleston, as a prisoner of war. 
lie refused to do either, claiming that under the 
capitulation, and the sanctity of his parole, which 
he had not violated, he had a right to remain where 
he was. The illness of his family, with that ter- 
rible malady the small-pox, added to his allliction 
and perplexity. 

Harassed by the importunities of his enemies, 
he was at length persuaded to repair to Charleston ; 
but he bore with him a written pledge from the 
British officer in his neighbourhood, that he should 
immediately be permitted to return to his family, on 
his engaging to demean himself as a British subject, 
while a British army covered the country. "With 
this guarantee, he trusted only to be required to give 
the assurance and return. But he was told that he 
must either swear alleo-iance to the British o-overn- 
ment, or go into close imprisonment. With a dying 
wife and child at home, the father gave way ; but 
in the oath of allegiance he protested against the 
clause which required him " with his arms to sup- 
port the British government."' 



LIFEOF MARION. 63 

His scruples upon this point were met by the 
declaration that it never would be required of him 
to take up arms against his country ; and with this 
understanding he subscribed the form, and hastened 
back to his plantation ; but it was only to receive 
the expiring sigh of his wife, and to find one of his 
children no more. After this he resided privately 
upon his estate, taking no part in passing events. 
The next movement, unexpected and more oppres- 
sive than all the. others, was a command from the 
British authorities that he should repair at once to 
the British standard, and take arms for the crown. 
This violation of the agreement on the part of the 
royalists he regarded as fully absolving him ; and 
he hastened at once to the American camp, and bore 
arms in the service of his country. 

He was made a prisoner of war by the British, 
and removed to Charleston. A court of inquiry 
was summoned, by which he was condemned to be 
hanged " for having been found under arms, and 
employed in raising a regiment to oppose the British 
government, though he had become a subject, and 
accepted the protection of that government." 

This sentence was accordingly carried into exe- 
cution, on the 4th of August, 1781. Every effort 
was made to procure a review or abrogation of the 
sentence. Lord Rawdon, then in command of 



64 L I F R O F M A R I O N . 

Charleston, was addressed in every way. People 
of all classes, Loyalists as well as Whigs, interceded 
to no purpose. Even the children of the prisoner, 
habited in deep mourning, were introduced into the 
military despot's presence, and implored him for the 
life of their father. Lord Rawdon was inexorable. 
The prisoner took no part in these proceedings, but 
during his imprisonment, and at the time of his 
execution, behaved with a firmness which has made 
his melancholy and ignominious death one of the 
heroic passages of the revolution. 

The close of the tragedy, the attentive reader has 
no doubt perceived, is in advance of our narrative. 
AVhat was done to Colonel Hayne was, however, 
but a parallel to what befel others, less prominent 
and distinguished, in a more summary and sudden 
manner. The articles of capitulation, under which 
Charleston surrendered, were treated as if they 
never had been written. The property of citizens 
was seized, and the prisoners who had surrendered 
were crowded into prison-ships, and released only 
on condition of enlisting, to serve in the British 
army in other countries. Citizens who were sus- 
pected, by their influence or example, of aiding the 
endurance of the prisoners, were dragged from 
their houses without warning, and forced to share 
the horrors of the prison-ships. The proclamation 



LIFEOF]\llARION. 65 

of Cornwallis, to which we have before referred, 
appUed to all the colonists the same tortuous policy 
which we have detailed in the case of Colonel 
Hayne. They were told that they could only enjoy 
the privileges which the first proclamation had held 
out, by returning to full allegiance as British sub- 
jects, and taking up arms against their countrymen. 
So gross an act of insincerity opened the eyes of 
the whole people, and failed utterly in the purpose 
which it was intended to serve. 



66 LIFEOFMARION. 



CHAPTER V. 

Movements and Character of Colonel Tarleton — Origin of the Phrase 
"Tarleton's Quarters" — Capture or Retreat of distinguished Caroli- 
nians — Eager Vindictiveness of the Tories — Hunting of Marion 
through the Swamps — He escapes to North Carolina — Meets his old 
Friend Horry — Their Poverty — The Unfriendliness of their Coun- 
trymen — National Financial Difficulties — Adventure at an Inn — 
American Women — Arrival of General Gates. 



|HILE the state of things which we 
have described in the previous chap- 
ter existed in Charleston, in the 
'^^ country things were even worse. 
The small bodies of troops which 
the Americans strove to drill and organize, 
were attacked by the British and loyalists, 
principally by detachments under command 
of Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton, who was one of the 
most active and energetic, and, at the same time, 
barbarous and unscrupulous officers in the British 
service. So cruel was he in his butcheries that his 
name was a terror and a synonyme with barbarity. 
No small part of his successes in his predatory 
excursions is perhaps to be attributed to the fright 




LIFEOF MARION. 67 

wliicli his evil fame inspired. " Tarleton" was not 
merely a word to frighten women and children, but 
men were not unreasonably alarmed at his approach ; 
and " Tarleton' s Quarters" passed into a by-word 
to signify indiscriminate slaughter of the defeated. 
The occurrence which gave occasion to such a 
phrase happened just after the fall of Charleston, 
when Colonel Beaufort was advancing to the relief 
of that city, from Virginia, with four hundred men, 
being yet unadvised of its surrender. When Beau- 
fort reached Camden he heard the disastrous intel- 
ligence, and determined upon a retreat. Tarleton 
with seven hundred men was despatched to seek 
him, and overtook him near the Wexhaw settle- 
ments, where he summoned him to surrender. 
Beaufort hesitated, not preparing for flight, for sur- 
render, or for an engagement. His patriotism 
halted at the two first courses, and his prudence 
sufforested the useless valour of the last. While de- 
bating with himself, and consulting with his officers, 
Tarleton suddenly and impetuously attacked him. 
Unprepared either to fight or to retreat, the Ameri- 
cans made a feeble and indecisive show of resist- 
ance, and then grounded their arms. The flao^ of 
truce was disregarded ; the bearer of it was cut 
down by Tarleton himself, and the British rushed 
with fixed bayonets upon the Americans, who fan,- 



66 LIFE OF MARION. 

cied that the battle was over. But some of them, 
thus attacked, seized their grounded arms, deter- 
mined, since their appUcation was disregarded, to 
die Uke men. This renewal of firing brought on a 
terrible butchery by the British, who gave no quar- 
ter ; and " Tarleton's Quarters" was afterward the 
battle-cry in many a bloody scene. It is difficult 
to define the precise degree of criminality which 
attaches to the British commander in this affair ; or 
to say how far Beaufort's mismanagement led to the 
fatal result ; but it is certain that by no one less 
sanguinary and impetuous than Tarleton would his 
mistake, if mistake it was, have been committed. 

The British and loyalists followed up their 
advantages whenever any point of attack presented 
itself, till scarce a vestige of opposition remained. 
The most distinguished patriots who had escaped, 
did so by abandoning the State ; for to have been 
known as a patriot left no chance or hope of secu- 
rity. In the absence of proprietors, their property 
was destroyed ; and the more humble citizens, who 
might have escaped from their enemies by the mere 
circumstance of their obscurity, were pointed out 
by partisan hate, and their houses fired, and pos- 
sessions ravaged. Many concealed their sentiments 
or held their peace, not daring openly to acknow- 
ledge their friendship for their country. 



LIFE OF MARION. 69 

During this period, where was Marion? His 
name was too well known, and the character of his 
services to his country was too well and too widely 
celebrated to make it possible that he should rest in 
peace. His disabled condition prevented his remov- 
ing from the State, and for several months he was 
hunted from place to place, from thicket to thicket, 
and from swamp to swamp, with eager animosity. 
But his gallant services had raised him troops of 
friends among those who loved their country ; and 
of personal friends who loved him for himself alone, 
he had no lack. These were ever upon the alert. 
They watched every movement of the enemy ; and 
whenever danger approached, he was hurried to a 
new place of concealment. Now carried at mid- 
night from his bed to the woods — now hurried from 
one hiding-place amid the rocks and swamps to 
another; escaping many times by a very hair's- 
breadth, he spent several months in what would 
appear the very worst treatment to which a man 
with a shattered limb could have been subjected. 
To have endured all this, even with a sound body, 
would seem enough to have broken and killed an 
ordinary man. Marion's iron constitution, inured, 
as we have seen, to hardship and suffering in his 
youth, and fortified by a life of temperance, enabled 
him to survive it all ; and the fidelity of his ser- 



70 LIFEOPMARION. 

vants, and of his friends among the most humble 
of his countrymen, was a solace which, supporting 
his great mind, gave strength to his feeble, body. 

As soon as he could mount a horse with the 
assistance of his servant, he prepared for active ser- 
vice again. Had he been disposed to relax in his 
warfare for liberty, the persecution he had under- 
gone would have goaded him, as it did many others, 
to desperate resistance. Major Horry, who seems 
to have known nothing of Marion's whereabout 
during the concealment we have spoken of, and 
who, like Marion, had determined to go North in 
search of service, was fortunate enough upon his 
way to overtake Marion. The joy of the two 
friends at meeting thus was very great, though Ma- 
jor Horry, by his own admission, despaired of the 
ultimate success of the cause in which they had 
embarked their all. As to their condition, it was 
not very promising certainly. Marion's ancle was 
still so lame that he required the assistance of his 
servant to mount and dismount. " But," says 
Horry, " I was more sensible than ever what a 
divine thing friendship is. Well indeed was it for 
us that our hearts were so rich in friendship, for our 
pockets were as bare of gold and silver as if there 
were no such metals on earth. And, but for carry- 
ing a knife, or a horse-fleam, or a gun-flint, we had 



LIFE OF MARION. 71 

no more use for a pocket than a Highlander has for 
a knee-buclvle. As to hard money, we had not seen 
a dollar for years ; and of old continental, bad as it 
was, we received but little, and that was gone like 
a flash, as the reader may well suppose, when he 
comes to learn that a bottle of rum would sweep 
fifty dollars." 

The " old continental" which Major, now Colonel 
Horry, speaks of, was paper money, issued on the 
credit of the States which were resistino- Great 
Britain. When the prospect for final success 
seemed so little, it is hardly to be wondered that it 
depreciated in value, particularly among such 
people as the Colonel goes on to describe : " Here 
we were, two continental colonels of us, just started 
on a journey of several hundred miles, without a 
penny in pocket. But though poor in gold, we 
were rich in faith. Burning patriots ourselves, we 
had counted on it as a certainty, that everybody we 
should meet out of the reach of the British were as 
fiery as we ; and that the first sight of our uniforms 
would command smiling countenances and hot sup- 
pers, downy beds, and, in short, everything that 
our hearts could wish. But alas and alack, the 
mistake ! For instead of being smiled on every- 
where along the road as the champions of liberty, 
we were often grinned at as if we had been horse- 



72 LIFE OF MARION. 

thieves. Instead of being hailed with benedictions, 
we were often in danger from the brickbats ; and 
in Ueu of hot suppers and dinners, we were actually 
on the point of starving, both we and our horses ! 
For, in consequence of candidly telling the publi- 
cans * we had nothing to pay,' they as candidly 
declared * they had nothing to give,' and that * those 
who had no money had no business to travel.' " 

Such were the disadvantages under which Marion 
and many other hardy spirits laboured ; not only 
against the declared enemies of their country, but 
against the supineness and indifference of many 
of their countrymen. Nor were individual embar- 
rassments the only bar to a spirited and successful 
prosecution of the war. The Congress, and all the 
departments of government, laboured under diffi- 
culties so discouraging, that nothing but the hand 
of Him who is king of kin^s and the ruler of na- 
tions, could have carried the colonies through so 
arduous a struggle. It is well for our young read- 
ers, who look at the American Revolution only as 
a series of battles, to remember that there were 
other things to contend with, beside those which 
make up in history the glory of warfare. Men had 
their private feelings, necessities, and selfishness — 
families to support and provide for ; and that under 
every discouragement. We are not, therefore, to 



LIFEOFMARION. 73 

wonder, when war disarranged all the usual pursuits 
of life, and made even the bare coarse food neces- 
sary for its maintenance precarious, that self some- 
times mastered patriotism, even with those who 
were friendly to the objects of the war. Nor are 
we to be surprised that Marion and Horry should 
encounter an innkeeper who, when he saw their 
regimentals, began to hem and haiv, and tell them of 
" a mighty fine tavern about five miles farther on." 
They begged him to recollect that it was a dark 
and stormy night. 

"Oh," answered the publican, "the road is 
mighty plain, you can't miss your way." 

" But consider," said our Colonels, " we are 
strangers." 

"Oh," said the other, " I never liked strangers in 
all my life !" This was tolerably plain, but a sin- 
gular dislike for a tavernkeeper. The travellers 
rejoined : 

"But, sir, we are American officers, going to the 
North for men to fight your battles." 

" Oh, I want nobody to fight my battles. King 
George is good enough for me f" 

And driven away they would have been if the 
women of the household had not interposed, and 
insisted upon their being received ; and not only 



74 LIFEOFMARION. 

SO, but they filled their portmanteaus with provision 
for the way. And this reminds us to say that, as 
Americans, we cannot be too grateful to the women 
who lived in those troublous times. Their portion 
of the duties of that eventful period was not in the 
camp and in the field. They come in for no ade- 
quate share of the praise with which we celebrate 
the deeds of the Revolution. This is not as it 
should be. Their services were no less important 
than those rendered by the men ; and if their suf- 
ferinos did not consist in the blows of sabres and 
gun-shot wounds, their houses destroyed; their 
peace marred by anxiety, their hearts torn by the 
sufferincr and death of their kindred and friends, 
their patient labour through all this, and the not 
unfrequent voice of encouragement which they 
lifted, and that too in the darkest hours : — surely 
these considerations entitle the Heroines of the 
Revolution to our grateful remembrance. Without 
their aid, the independence of our country could 
never have been achieved. 

After a long and painful journey, relieved by the 
aid of occasional Whig hospitality and patriotism, 
our heroes arrived at Hillsborough, North Carolina, 
where they heard the gratifying intelligence that 
an army, under General Gates, was marching to 



LIFEOF MARION. 75 

the aid of their native State. Full of joy at this 
news, so consonant with their patriotic wishes, they 
hurried forward to join the American forces, little 
dreaming what a sad reverse awaited them, or how 
soon there would be added to the army cut to pieces 
at Savannah, and that captured at Charleston, the 
loss of still another. 



76 LIFEOF MARION. 



CHAPTER V. 

Marion's Fortitude — Military Character of Gates — His Obstinacy, and 
too hasty March — Poverty of the Country — Detachment of Marion 
in advance — Anecdote of Major James — Destruction of the Boats 
of the Planters — News received of Gates's Defeat — Death of De 
Kalb — Formation of Marion's Brigade — Cornwallis's Order — Success 
of Sumter — His subsequent Defeat. 



ORTITUDE and firm hope, without 
sanguine expectation of miracles or 
sudden good fortune, were Marion's 
characteristics. Never unduly elated , 
or rendered incautious by success, he never 
permitted himself to despair of the cause 
in which he had embarked life, fortune, and 
honour. It is related of him that, during 
the gloomy period which we have just been describ- 
ing, he had words of faith and hope for his friend 
Horry. " The victory," he said, " is still sure. The 
enemy, it is true, have the game in their hands, and 
if they had the spirit to be generous, would cer- 
tainly ruin us. But they have no idea of that — 
and will treat the people cruelly. And that one 
thing will ruin them, and save America." And, in 




LIFEOF MARION. 77 

reference to the cruelties of the British and Tories, 
Weems makes Marion say at another time : " 'Tis 
a harsh medicine, but it is necessary. Our country 
is hke a man who hag swallowed a mortal poison. 
Give him an anodyne to keep him easy, and he 's a 
dead man. But if you can only knock him about, 
he is safe. Our people have been lulled with 
proclamations and protections^ but that is over now, 
and they are opening their eyes." Undoubtedly 
such was the opinion of Marion, and other discern- 
ing men. 

As we have said, great hopes were entertained 
of the advance of assistance. But the disastrous 
issue of General Gates's Southern campaign made 
matters much worse than they were before his arri- 
val. He was flushed with his victory over Bur- 
goyne, and, unfortunately, too tenacious of his own 
opinion, and of his military education, to listen to 
advice. The unfortunate issue of the battle of 
Camden was made the subject of investigation 
before a court of inquiry. The verdict reinstated 
General Gates in his rank; and we must receive it, 
so far as it exonerates him from unsoldierlike con- 
duct. But upon the imprudence of his measures 
there can be but one opinion ; nor can there be a 
doubt that he vastly over-estimated his own abilities, 
or imagined that his name alone would spread such 



78 LIFE OF MARION. 

dismay among the ranks of the foe, that for him to 
advance would be to conquer. His prejudices, as 
we have had occasion to observe of other regularly- 
trained soldiers, acquired in too mechanical a school 
of war, unfitted him for the peculiar warfare of the 
Southern States, and prevented him from seeing 
that such men as Marion and his command were 
precisely the most effective, and their policy the 
most efficient. 

Gates was partially moved by the advice of Ma- 
rion, seconded by that of Governor Rutledge and 
Baron De Kalb, and, in consonance with their opi- 
nion, moved toward the heart of the State. It was 
thus intended to protect the Whigs, and to give 
them an opportunity to rally round the banner of 
their country; to prevent their being cut up in 
detail, and to relieve them from the merciless scout- 
ing parties of the loyalists. But this measure, taken 
at the sujjffestion of the Southern men, should have 
been conducted in their way. The army should 
have moved slowly and cautiously, gathering 
strength as it advanced, and becoming accustomed 
to discipline, and nerved to the conflict. By such 
a course, not only would it have received constant 
accessions, but the new men would have assimilated 
with the old, and all have become blended together. 

While De Kalb held the command, previous to 



L I F E O F M A R I O N . 79 

the arrival of General Gates, he had moved on 
carefully, and v^ith a due regard to the ease and 
refreshment of his men, and to the conciliation of 
the people through whose lands he passed. The 
march of a large body of men must be a heavy tax 
upon a country ; and at this season of the year 
(early in August) it vras particularly so, as the old 
crops were exhausted, and the new not harvested. 
De Kalb earnestly advised that he should move by 
the more circuitous route, through a rich country, 
which could have better supported the troops. 
Gates insisted on dashing through the shortest path ; 
and the sufferings of the troops are strongly but 
coarsely described by Horry. " Gates must dash 
upon his prey; and so, for a near cut, take us 
through a pine barren, sufficient to have starved a 
forlorn hope of caterpillars. What had we to ex- 
pect, in such a miserable country, where many a 
family goes without dinner, unless the father can 
knock down a squirrel in the woods, or his pale, 
sickly boy picks up a terrapin in the swamps ? We 
did, indeed, sometimes fall in with a little corn ; but 
then the poor, skinny, sunburnt women, with long, 
uncombed tresses, would run screaming to us, with 
tears in their eyes, declaring that if we took away 
their corn, they and their children must perish. 
Such times I never before saw, and I pray God I 



80 LIFEOF MARION. 

may never see nor hear of again, for to this day the 
bare thought of it depresses my spirits." 

But as Marion escaped the mortification of being 
present at the fall of Charleston, so was he also 
spared that of being in the army of Gates at his 
defeat. The reasons of his leaving Gates are in- 
volved in some uncertainty. Some authorities 
represent that it was the inconvenience of his posi- 
tion which induced him to take advantaore of the 
first opening that presented itself for independent 
service. Perhaps this had some weight. The men 
who had volunteered to join him presented little in 
appearance which was formidable, certainly. They 
are described as not exceeding twenty, men and 
boys, white and black, all mounted, but miserably 
equipped, and wearing, in their small leather caps 
and wretched clothing, an appearance so burlesque 
that it was with much difficulty the regular soldiers 
could be restrained from making Marion's men the 
subject of their diversion. But unpromising as 
was this little band in appearance, it had already 
performed feats of valour which had made its name 
famous ; and it was destined to accomplish exploits 
which have handed down their fame as the romance 
of the Revolution. 

Whatever may have been the causes which 
weighed with Marion — whether he saw that his ser- 



HFEOF MARION. 81 

vices were not likely to be appreciated, or was dis- 
inclined to be present during what he considered 
the mistaken policy of General Gates ; or whether, 
as was probable, the service of his country was the 
paramount reason with him, while the others had 
also their weight, we cannot fully determine ; but 
he did not leave without a motive and an object. 
He had been invited by the people of Williamsburg 
to put himself at their head ; and with this force 
he proposed to watch the motions of the enemy, and 
furnish intelligence. General Gates, who felt so 
sure of defeating Cornwallis that he wished to take 
measures to prevent the escape of the fugitives, also 
directed him to destroy all the rice-boats of the 
planters on the Santee River, to prevent the fugi- 
tives from crossing on their flight to Charleston. 

The people who had invited Marion to take com- 
mand of the volunteer force they were about to 
raise, resided between the Santee and Pedee Rivers. 
They were of Irish descent principally, and their 
district formed part of the country in which Marion 
and Horry raised their first recruits, at the com- 
mencement of the war. Of course the celebrated 
partisan chief was already well known among 
them ; and his knowledge of them, also, made him 
aware that better material for the command he 
wished to raise did not exist in the State. There 



82 L I F E O F M A R I O N . 

is a stirring anecdote connected with the taking up 
of arms in Williamsburg. The people had before 
them the two proclamations of which we have pre- 
viously spoken. Under the first many had accepted 
protections, or promised allegiance, as in other parts 
of the State. When the second appeared, and they 
were required to take up arms against their coun- 
trymen, or, rather, when they understood that they 
might be so called upon, it gave rise to a great deal 
of discussion. Meetings were held ; and as the 
two proclamations seemed incapable of reconciha- 
tion with each other, a representative was chosen to 
proceed to the nearest British post, and seek a solu- 
tion of the riddle. 

The person deputed on this mission was Major 
John James ; and the place to which he repaired 
was Georgetown, at which point a British armed 
vessel had just arrived, freighted with proclama- 
tions, and commanded by a Captain ArdeisofF — a 
gentleman who, when he left Charleston, little 
expected to be knocked down to posterity in the 
way that he has been. Major James, who had 
represented his district in the colonial legislature, 
and held other posts indicative of the esteem of his 
fellow-citizens, was too much accustomed to respect 
to be prepared for the haughty reception which 
Captain Ardeisoff gave him. When James opened 



L I F E O F M A R I O N . 83 

his business, and inquired upon what terms him- 
self and friends were required to submit, ArdeisofF 
testily answered, " No other terms, you may be 
sure, sir, than unconditional submission." 

"Of course, then," said the other, " we may 
remain at home in peace and quiet." 

" No, sir ! you have forfeited your lives, and all 
deserve to be hanged ; and his majesty's generous 
pardon is granted only on condition of your taking 
up arms in his cause." 

Major James made a spirited reply, and other 
words followed, in the course of which the British 
officer apphed the term " rebels" to James and his 
friends, with a low and profane addition. Major 
James, losing all command of himself, sprang up, 
and seizing the chair upon which he had been sit- 
ting, astonished Captain ArdeisofF by knocking that 
worthy down with it ; then hurrying to his horse, 
was out of the reach of pursuit before it could be 
attempted. What report such a messenger carried 
back to his constituents may readily be imagined ; 
and the immediate action which was taken upon it, 
resulted in the formation of Marion's Brigade. 

Major James was the first commander of the four 
companies which were raised ; and he instantly set 
them to work. After some small but successful 
skirmishes, one of the four companies was sent for- 



%| LIFE OF MARION. 

ward to Lynch's Creek, under Colonel McCottrj, 
and there hearing of Colonel Tarleton, McCottry 
advanced to give him battle. The British officer, 
probably from hearing exaggerated reports of 
McCottry's strength, retreated ; and thus the new 
soldiers had the honour of early, though bloodless 
success. It was at this point that Marion joined 
the new troops, a few days before the defeat of 
Gates. His personal appearance at this time is thus 
described by Judge James, a son of the Major, who, 
at the ajje of fifteen, was a volunteer under Marion. 
" He was rather below the middle stature, lean and 
$warthy. His body was well set, but his knees and 
ancles were badly formed, and he still limped upon 
one leg. He had a countenance remarkably steady ; 
his nose was aquiline, his chin projecting ; his fore- 
head large and high, and his eyes black and pierc- 
ing. He was then forty-eight years of age, with a 
frame capable of enduring fatigue and every priva- 
tion. * * * He was dressed in a close round- 
bodied crimson jacket, of a coarse texture, and wore 
a leather cap, part of the uniform of the second 
regiment, with a silver crescent in front, inscribed 
with the words, ' Liberty or Death !' " 

We cannot fix with exactness the order of time 
in which all Marion's movements were made, nor 
is it important. He was proceeding, on the day 



L I P E O F M A R I O N . §5 

after the battle of Camden, in pursuance of Gates's 
instructions, to break up the boats on the Santee, 
when the starthng news of the defeat of the Ame- 
rican army reached him ; and of course operations 
of that nature were no longer necessary, or advisa- 
ble. Marion at once desisted, and struck to the 
woods to prepare for the Tories, who had a new 
advantage over him in the exasperation of the 
planters at the destruction of their property. 

Gates's defeat, which took place on the 16th of 
August, 1780, had been as complete as his advance 
had been incautious. On the night of the 15th, 
the American army moved from Rugely's Mills, 
about twelve miles from Camden, where the enemy 
lay ; and on the same night the British moved from 
Camden, for Rugely's Mills, the object of each com- 
mander being to surprise the other. The two 
armies met in the darkness, and, after exchanging 
a few shots, fell back to wait for daylight. De Kalb 
iand others of the American officers, advised a retreat 
to the original position — ^but this Gates would not 
listen to. The greater part of the American forces 
had never seen any service ; but in the night they 
showed a gallantry which indicated better things 
than they performed in the morning. The action 
began with the break of day ; but with the unex- 



OO LIFEOFMARION. 

pected severity of the British fire, the raw troops 
broke, some of them without firing a gun. General 
Gates hurried after them, in a fruitless attempt to 
bring them back, and the continentals, nine hundred 
in number, were left to sustain the attack of two 
thousand veterans, who were flushed with victory. 
The Americans, with De Kalb at their head, fought 
with desperation; and their veteran commander 
fell with no less than eleven wounds. British offi- 
cers, when his name was made known by Du Buy- 
sen, his gallant aid, who tlirev/ himself between the 
fallen hero and the enemies' bayonets, interposed, 
and prevented his being killed upon the spot. The 
rout was complete, and, under such circumstances, 
it is only wonderful that the brave continentals 
endured the unequal contest so long. 

Immediately after the victory, Cornwallis sullied 
his laurels by hanging some twelve or fifteen of his 
prisoners, on the easy pretext which the vacillating 
or treacherous " proclamations" furnished. He had, 
previously to the battle, issued general orders, from 
which the following is an extract : 

'* All the inhabitants of this province, who had 
submitted, and who have taken a part in this revolt, 
shall be punished with the greatest rigour; they 
shall be imprisoned, and their whole property taken 



LIFEOF MARION. 87 

from them or destroyed. I have hkewise directed 
that compensation should be made, out of their 
effects, to persons who have been plundered or 
oppressed by them, I have ordered in the most 
positive manner, that every militia-man, who had 
borne arms with us, and had afterwards joined the 
enemy, should be immediately hanged !" 

With this order, and with the commander-in- 
chief's example, and the vindictiveness of partisan 
hate, there was little hope from the mercies of the 
British party afterward ; nor, we are sorry to say, 
could the Whigs refrain from retaliation, although 
Marion and other officers laboured hard to prevent 
cruelty and wanton mischief Reserving these 
things for the future chapters, we will close this 
with one more disaster. 

General Sumter, a partisan officer, whose fame is 
second only to that of Marion, had, in July, obtained 
several victories over detachments of the enemy. 
To him, indeed, belongs the merit of giving the 
first check to the British success, after the fall of 
Charleston. While Gates was losing the battle of 
Camden, Sumter attacked a convoy of British 
stores, capturing three hundred prisoners, and secur- 
ing forty wagons of munitions and provisions. Had 
Gates waited a couple of days, or been cautious 



LJFE OP MARION, 



instead of rash, this affair of Sumter's might have 
come in as a powerful aid in raising the confidence 
of the main army. As it was, Sumter was incau- 
tious as valiant, and, encamping within an impru- 
dent vicinity of the victorious enemy, he was sur- 
prised, and not only lost the booty he had taken, 
but barely escaped himself. 



LI^EOP MARION. 89 



CHAPTER VI. 

Marion watches the Road between Charleston and Camden — Disperses 
a British Party and liberates its Prisoners — Fluctuating Numbers of 
Marion's Band — Surprise of Captain Barfield — ^Defeat of the Tories 
at Black Mingo. 

^OW, after the rout of Gates, and the 
breaking up of Sumter's band, an'y 
more irresolute commander than Ma- 
rion would have considered the cause, 
for the present at least, hopeless, and far- 
ther efforts of no service. But Marion, 
v^^ho had with him at this time only about 
thirty men, rightly deemed that while the 
British were somewhat incautious on 'ac- 
count of their late successes, precisely the moment 
offered when his handful of followers could be made 
available. He was well informed, both by volunteer 
advices and by his own regular scouts, of the move- 
ments of the enemy's forces, and resolved that the 
victorious foe should be taught that the defeat of 
Gates, thorough and unfortunate as it was, had not 
wholly extinguished the patriot courage. To this 
end, he watched the road between Charleston and 




90 LIFE OF MARION. 

Camden, as the communications passing between 
the British forces at those two points offered oppor- 
tunity to intercept some of the parties. 

Nor was he long in waiting. Hearing of the 
approach of a party of British soldiers, with prison- 
ers, he pushed on with his force, and crossed Nel- 
son's Ferry in advance of the British, under cover 
of the supposition that they were loyalists. The 
nearer to Charleston that the attack could be made, 
the better opportunity was there for a surprise, as 
such an event would be less expected. The British 
party halted at a tavern, on the east side of the river, 
for the night ; and, at dawn, Marion and his men 
fell upon them. The* sentinels had barely time to 
discharge their guns and run in; Marion's men 
rushed into the tavern-yard with them ; and almost 
in an instant the affair was over. Twenty-six of the 
British were killed or made prisoners, with a loss 
of one man killed and one slightly w^ounded, on the 
part of the Americans. The little party were, by 
this affair, supplied with better arms, and re-fur- 
nished with ammunition. At the time of making 
the attack Marion's men had only four rounds of 
ammunition, and hardly a sword among them. 
This was, however, much better than they were 
often furnished ; for they not unfrequently made an 
attack when a portion of them were compelled to 



LIFE OF MARION. 91 

be mere spectators, for the lack of arms, and to 
trust to the capture of guns from the enemy, to 
supply themselves. But their daring audacity led 
the enemy to suspect least of all their inefficiency ; 
and the suddenness and boldness of their move- 
ments supplied the lack of numbers and deficiency 
of arms. Horsemen without swords would be help- 
less soldiers ; and Marion took measures to remedy 
this defect. He "disarmed" the saw-mills, and of 
the material thus collected had cutlasses forged, 
which probably made up in weight what they lacked 
in quality of metal ; for a single blow from one of 
Marion's men was often death. 

One hundred and fifty American prisoners were 
liberated by this gallant achievement of Marion; 
and it was certainly not unreasonable to expect that 
his force would receive a large accession from the 
rescued prisoners. But not more than two or three, 
of so many, would join his band. They considered 
the cause as hopeless, and could see no use, they 
said, in fighting any longer, when all was lost. 

There is one feature of Marion's command which 
it may be well to explain here, as it will furnish a 
key to the variableness in the number of his men. 
No service was ever more strictly voluntary than 
that of the soldiers under his command. When- 
ever he was pursued by a superior force, or circum- 



92 LIFKOF MARION. 

stances made his numbers a mark for the enemy, 
and he was still not in sufficient force to contend, it 
was customary with him to dismiss them. All 
except a chosen few, and sometimes even those, 
scattered and disappeared, returning to their fami- 
lies ; or, if that were unsafe or impracticable, con- 
cealing themselves at different points — each for 
himself The brigade which struck terror so often 
into the hearts of the British and Tories, even in 
their fortified towns and camps, seemed absolutely 
to vanish when to contend was unadvisable. But 
they vanished only to reappear when least expected. 
Dispersion was part of their tactics ; and a pursuing 
force was never in more danger than when, by the 
usual customs of warfare, it would appear that the 
party pursued was entirely broken and scattered 
Such perfect influence had Marion over his men, 
that he knew they would promptly reappear at the 
understood signal; and if any chose by chance to 
withdraw entirely, he claimed and asserted no right 
to forbid it. Voluntary and cheerful service was 
the life of his command ; and expulsion from the 
brigade w^as the severest punishment known in his 
code. 

Many men were, by this system, enabled at once 
to give some attention to their domestic duties and 
needs, and to remain in the service of the country, 



LIPEOFMARIQN. 93 

acting when occasion called. Marion had estab- 
lished the most perfect system of espionage on the 
movements of the enemy which ever existed in any 
warfare. Information was constantly reaching him 
from all quarters, giving the British no opportunity 
to move without his knowledge; while, on the 
other hand, he kept his intentions secret, even from 
his own officers, until the moment arrived for put- 
ting his men in motion. There was an air of mys- 
terious daring in what he undertook, and a bustle 
of hearty enterprise about his movements, which 
gave a charm to the life his followers led. A^ he 
never needlessly or carelessly led them into danger, 
and never forced their inclinations, they were, to 
use an expressive proverbial saying, ready to " fol- 
low him blind;" and the result, in almost every 
case, justified their confidence. He studied to make 
each man feel his individual weight and conse- 
quence, and to lead each to act always in accord- 
ance with the voluntary principle, as we have 
already observed. All thus acting willinglij were 
content that he should be the sole guardian of his 
own purposes ; and they even watched his cook, to 
discover when he was preparing an extra quantity 
of Marion's provision, and govern their own move- 
ments accordingly. State he never affected, nor 
could he, from his slight frame, accomplish personal 



94 LIFEOF MARION. 

deeds of remarkable prowess. His sword was so 
seldom flourished, that it is related that he once 
found it difficult to draw from the scabbard, on 
account of the rust. His was a pure empire of 
mind ; and in his narrower sphere he was a Napo- 
leon. Never were the great Emperor's guard more 
attached to their commander, than were Marion's 
men to the partisan chieftain who so often led them 
to victory. 

But it is time to resume the thread of our narra- 
tive. Just at this juncture several affairs occurred, 
the ^precise order and date of which it is difficult to 
fix. One of these was the surprise of Major Gai- 
ney, who was regarded as one of the best partisan 
officers in the British service. He held a position 
on Britton's Neck ; and Marion, advancing with his 
usual celerity, dispersed the party, killing a captain 
and several privates, but without the loss of a man. 
He came near, however, losing the gallant Major 
James. That officer, singling out Gainey for pur- 
suit, followed him alone and unsupported, till he 
suddenly found himself confronted by a large body 
of Tories, who had rallied. Here was a dangerous 
position for a single man ; but with the ready pre- 
sence of mind which so often stood the partisan in 
lieu of numbers. Major James waved his sword and 
shouted, " Come on, boys ! Here they are !" The 



LIPEOFMARION. 95 

Tories supposing, of course, that Major James led 
the attacking party, broke once more, and made 
their escape from one man, by taking to the swamp ; 
and James, successful in his ruse, returned in safety 
to his comrades. A second party of Tories, under 
command of Captain Bariield, was next defeated as 
completely as Gainey had been ; and, with ammu- 
nition replenished, Marion returned to Britten's 
Neck, where he mounted two old field-pieces, which 
were among his recent captures. 

These bold and striking movements of Marion, 
inasmuch as they kept the fire of patriotism awake, 
and mocked the security upon which the Tories 
counted, compelled the British commander to take 
extraordinary measures to quiet Mr. Marion, as they 
persisted in calling him, unwilling to recognize the 
military rank of the leader whom they could not 
conquer. Tarleton's Legion, another body of British 
troops, under Colonel Wemyss, and a detachment 
of Tories, under Major Harrison, were despatched 
in pursuit. The Tories were auxiliary to the com- 
mand of Wemyss. Marion, whose force was at 
this time only about one hundred and fifty men, 
found it necessary to retreat toward North Carolina, 
leaving Wemyss to get recruits ready for the Ame- 
rican army, when it should return. This the Bri tish 
officer did most effectually; unwittingly performing 



96 L I F E O F M A R I O N . 

a service for the cause of freedom, which was bit- 
terly rued by his Tory alUes. The British Gene- 
ral's method of strengthening the Americans was 
by fire and sword. The region through which he 
passed in his advance, seventy miles long, and fifteen 
in breadth, M-as absolutely burned over. Private 
enmity, to satisfy an old grudge, had only to point 
out to the British commander the residence of the 
person hated as that of " a rebel," and, upon this 
accusation, the buildings were destroyed by fire, and 
the cattle and sheep driven otf or slaughtered. In 
order to render the wanton destruction more com- 
plete, the maraudmg British commander would not 
suffer the furniture to be taken from the houses 
which he fired; and if the inhabitants escaped with 
their hves, they were tbrtunate. 

Wemyss carried out the instructions of Corn- 
wallis, which we have quoted in a preceding chap- 
ter, to the letter ; varying his fiendish course with 
the execution, now and then, of some person who 
had committed the crime of taking up arms for his 
country. The prayers and entreaties of the un- 
happy relatives, the cries of children in behalf of a 
father, or of parents for a child, the stay of their 
old age ; the woils of the ^vife who saw her hus- 
band seized by the ruthless foe — notliing availed 
^^'ith this fiendish marauder. In one instance it is 



LIFE OP MARION. Ot 

related that he would have ridden over the wife and 
children of a prisoner, who threw themselves across 
his path to beseech him for the life of the husband 
and father, had not his officers interposed to prevent 
him, for very shame, from committing a crime so 
brutal. Churches he burned with sacrilegious 
indifference, denouncing them as "sedition shops," 
and, in a word, he appeared to rack his invention 
for modes in which to exhibit his absence of human 
sympathy or human feeling. 

Before deciding to retreat, Marion with his small 
force hung for a while upon the skirts of Wemyss. 
Major James preceded Marion with a reconnoitring 
party ; and, as not unusual with Marion's scouts, 
he very frequently brought away prisoners as well 
as information ; pouncing, with a shout, upon strag- 
gling parties in the rear, and sweeping away cap- 
tives in a flash. But the observations of Major 
James were such as convinced Marion of the inu- 
tility of attempting to do anything against the force 
which Wemyss led ; and it is recorded that Marion's 
men sat upon their horses in anxious suspense to 
hear what decision the officers would reach after 
consulting with Major James's report before them. 
When the order was given to march back to Lynch's 
Creek, a groan was audible along the whole line ; 
but Marion's men were accustomed to obey. 

G 



98 r. I F E O F >I A R I O i\ . 

The retreat decided upon, Marion took his mea- 
sures at once. As he moved toward the North, his 
men, as had been directed, disappeared, one by one, 
leaving him only about sixty. The field-pieces he 
carried with him a short distance, but findino^ little 
use, in his peculiar mode of warfare, for such cum- 
bersome arms, he caused them to be turned into a 
swamp and left. He despatched scouting parties 
of tried men back to South Carolina, to watch the 
enemy and keep him advised of their movements, 
and also to encourage the Whigs, and induce them 
to hold themselves in readiness for service, when 
occasion should present itself And well Marion 
knew, from the character of the enemy, that, as we 
have already seen, their conduct was precisely of a 
description to second his efforts. 

Many anecdotes of Marion's scouts are among 
the legends of South Carolina. One party of four, 
in charge of Captain Gavin Witherspoon, performed 
a feat which is amonor the most remarkable. We 
should rather say, that Witherspoon himself did the 
work, his men merely aiding when they could, for 
very astonishment, do nothing else. Witherspoon, 
having discovered a party of Tories, w^ho were in 
pursuit of him, encamped, proposed to his party 
that they should watch the Tories until they slept. 
But the three were disinclined to this experiment. 



LIFEOF MARION. 99 

They said the number of the enemy was so much 
superior, that no good could come of it. Captain 
Witherspoon then resolved to watch the party alone. 

Putting in practice the arts of an experienced 
scout, he worked himself silently near enough to 
ascertain the exact position of the party. Ha\dng 
no fear of interruption, the Tories had disposed 
themselves to sleep at the butt of a prostrate pine, 
while their arms were piled against one of its 
branches. Witherspoon worked himself up till he 
had gained possession of their guns, and then, in a 
loud voice, summoned the sleepers to surrender. 
Unarmed, and knowing by the direction of the 
voice, and perhaps by the click of a gun-lock, where 
the challenger stood, and presuming, of course, that 
he was well backed, the party submitted, and With- 
erspoon' s followers now came up, in season to assist 
him in securing the seven persons whom he had 
captured. 

The several parties in pursuit of Marion, sup- 
posing that they had entirely broken up his force, 
and that retreat was equivalent to defeat, rested. 
The British returned to Georgetown, and the Tories 
to Black JVIingo. Now, in accordance w^ith his 
tactics, was the time for Marion to strike. He 
knew that the apparent quiet into which the cruel • 
ties of the enemv had reduced the country, was the 



100 LIFE OF MARION. 

silent brooding of revenge, which waited but its 
opportunity; and, though his party was small, he 
counted on strong reinforcements as soon as the 
whisper should run from cabin to cabin, and from 
swamp to swamp, " Marion is coming !" 

Hurrying forward, night and day, on the second 
day of his journey he had accomplished sixty miles, 
and at Lynch's Creek was joined by a party of 
Whigs, under Captains James and Mouzon. The 
Tories were fifteen miles distant, at Black Mingo. 
They were encamped near a ferry, over a deep and 
rapid stream, w^hich ferry, of course, they com- 
manded, so that they felt sure against attack. But 
about a mile above the Tory camp was a bridge of 
planks, the approach to which was over a rude 
causeway through a bog — and this pass the Tories 
had left unwatched. Marion's party reached it at 
midnight, and, crossing it at a gallop, soon gained 
the high road on the other side, the bridge being 
on a bye-path. As they crossed, the alarm-gun 
sounded from the Tory camp ; and, the enemy hav- 
ing been by some means apprised of their approach, 
the affair which Marion intended should have been 
a surprise, became a sharply contested skirmish. 

Marion's disposition of his forces was made in an 
instant. He went in his expeditions prepared for 
any turn affairs might take, and ready to seize what- 



LIFE OF MARION. 101 

ever disadvantage circumstances might present. A 
party of picked men, under Captain Waties, was 
sent to gain the rear of the encampment, and attack 
a house in which it was supposed the Tories were 
posted. The rest of the party advanced to the 
attack with great impetuosity, but were received 
with a galHng fire, the Tories having left the house, 
and being formed and ready to repel their assail- 
ants. The Tory party outnumbered the other at 
least two to one. 

For a moment Marion's men staggered, but 
quickly rallied, and returned to the charge. The 
defence was resolute and brave, and the result san- 
guinary. Had it not been for the precaution taken 
by Marion, the issue might have been doubtful ; 
but at this moment Captain Waties, finding the 
house which he was ordered to attack deserted, 
came up in the rear of the enemy. The Tory 
commander. Captain John C. Ball, had fallen, and 
several other officers ; and now finding themselves 
between two fires, as Captain Waties vigorously 
pushed his attack, the enemy broke in great preci- 
pitation, and took refuge in the swamp. The force 
was completely annihilated ; and it was a long time 
before the spirits of the Tories recovered from a 
defeat so thorough. 

This advantage was gained with much greater 



102 LIFE OF MARION. 

proportional loss of men than almost any other in 
which Marion was engaged; for his plan of con- 
ducting the war was to spare human life. Fully 
one-third of the troops which he commanded were 
killed or wounded. Among the former was Captain 
Logan, and among the latter were Captain Mouzon 
and Lieutenant Scott. The loss of the Tories was 
even greater. The affair would have resulted in a 
defeat of the enemy quite as useful, and at much 
less expense of life, but for the alarm which was 
given by the horses' hoofs on Black Mingo Bridge ; 
and from that time Marion never suffered his troops 
to ride over a bridge in the night, till the precaution 
had first been taken to cover it with the soldiers' 
blankets, to prevent the sounding of the horses' 
hoofs upon the planks. 



LIFE OF MARION. 103 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Serjeant Macdonald and the Tory — Marion's Horse, " Ball" — His pre- 
ference for Fords, over Bridges — His contempt of Luxury — Colonel 
Peter Horry's Horsemanship — Good Result from an accident — Mari- 
on's Commission as Brigadier, and Horry's as Colonel — The Value 
of these Commissions — Surprise of the Tories on the Pedee. 



FTER the defeat of the Tories at 
Black Mingo, Marion gave his sol- 
diers rest. Indeed, there was, just 
then, little else to do. The Whigs 
did not, like the loyalists, amuse themselves 
by burning houses, when no body of the 
enemy presented itself, nor did they seek 
single loyalists, and drag them from their beds 
and from their families. Sometimes, it is true, arti- 
fice or plunder was resorted to against wealthy To- 
ries on private account. Such was the trick played 
by a Serjeant in Marion's Brigade, a young Scot 
named Macdonald. He went to a wealthy and 
well-known Tory, who resided near Tarleton's en- 
campment, and, representing himself to be a Ser- 
jeant in Tarleton's legion, bearing a message from 
his commander, was received with a profusion of 




104 LIFE OF MARION. 

compliments, and great civility. It was considered 
a high honour by the wealthy loyalist to be remem- 
bered in so distinguished a manner by the British 
officer. Macdonald then, with unblushinof effron- 
tery, stated that Colonel Tarleton, knowing the 
excellent character of his stables, had sent, with his 
compliments, for one of his best horses, for the 
Colonel's own riding. This was a testimonial 
alike to his loyalty and to his '' Icnowledge in horse- 
flesh," which the loyalist could not withstand ; and, 
as the Serjeant took pains to make the message suf- 
ficiently adulatory to the distinguished devotion of 
the Tory to the royal cause, the dupe gave him his 
very best, his own favourite steed, and added a new 
saddle and splendid equipments. The serjeant was 
furthermore feasted with a hot and comfortable 
breakfast — a rare treat to one of Marion's men, and 
then despatched with a message to Tarleton full of 
the heartiest thanks for his consideration ; as if the 
person who gave, and not the officer who received 
the splendid present was the party obliged. The 
old loyalist called at the camp, of course, to receive 
the Colonel's acknowledgments; and was not a 
little chagrined, as we may well suppose, when he 
discovered the trick which had been played upon 
him. This adventure put Serjeant Macdonald in 
possession of one of the finest horses in the Brigade. 



LIFE OF MARION. 105 

It was justified on the plea that " all is fair in war;" 
but we think that even the Serjeant himself would 
have valued his charger more if it had been obtained 
in a fair fight, with an open enemy. 

Marion himself rode, during a great part of his 
campaigns, a famous horse, named Ball, in compli- 
ment to his former owner, a loyalist captain from 
whom he had taken him ; the same Captain Ball 
who fell at Black Mingo, as stated in our last chap- 
ter. This horse was as celebrated among quadru- 
peds as Marion was among men. He " took to the 
water," as the phrase is, like a Newfoundland dog; 
and his master put unlimited confidence in him. 
And Marion had need of a horse who could swim, 
for as with all his daring he was a man of slight 
muscular powers, so, notwithstanding that he pre- 
ferred fords to bridges, he could not swim. Yet, it 
was his custom to destroy all bridges in his routes, 
where practicable, in order to prevent the marches 
of large bodies of the enemy ; and he avoided cross- 
ing them himself with his party, on account of the 
noise. He plunged his horse Ball into the rivers, 
at the head of his troop ; and the horses of the Bri- 
gade, emulating Ball's example, learned to follow. 
This was one of the methods by which Marion 
made so many surprises ; for a river was no protec- 
tion against the flying visits of Marion's troop. 



106 LIFEOF MARION. 

They were cumbered with no artillery, and no bag- 
gage. Much of the time Marion himself had not 
even a blanket ; for his bed of brush caught fire one 
night, and not only destroyed his blanket, but singed 
his own hair, and spoiled his famous leather cap. 
This was the only time, we believe, that Marion 
was ever " surprised" in his encampment. He was 
in no hurry to replace the lost article, either because 
it was not convenient, or that he would teach his 
men self-denial. Such privations and contempt of 
comfort on the part of the chief made the men 
hardy. They remind one of the Highland chief- 
tain, who, w^hen he found that one of his clan had 
rolled together a large snow-ball for a pillow, broke 
it to pieces with a kick, protesting that he would 
permit no such luxuries ! 

But Marion was not the only one of his party 
who could not swim. It is wonderful what enthu- 
siastic patriotism, and the love of adventure, will 
lead men to dare. Colonel Peter Horry, of whom 
we have often spoken, not only could not swim, but 
was a wretchedly poor horseman; and yet went 
dashing through with the Brigade, "neck or no- 
thing." On one occasion, while swimming a 
swamp, he was caught by a hanging bough, in the 
dark, and his horse swam away from him. He 
clung to the tree until rescued by his men ; and, 



LIFE OF MARION. 107 

indeed, on more than one occasion, owed his life to 
them. He was often "unhorsed in combat, and in 
one case at least such an accident was the cause of 
success, instead of disaster. 

Colonel Horry's men, being surprised by the 
enemy, suddenly, and with more speed than cour- 
age, retreated. The gallant Colonel cried after them 
to halt, feeling conscious, perhaps, that in such a 
steeple chase he would stand a small chance ; but 
they hurried off without paying any attention to 
his orders. When he found he needs must, he 
clapped spurs to his horse, and attempted to follow ; 
but his steed embraced the opportunity to toss the 
gallant Colonel over his head " full ten feet," as 
Horry himself describes it ; and it must be acknow- 
ledged, that this was high vaulting. Fortunately, 
the Colonel received no hurt, but recovering his legs 
in an instant, shouted again to his men to " halt and 
form !" Tlie pursuers by this time began to sus- 
pect, as Marion's men were not much in the habit 
of running from an enemy, that this flight was a 
trick, and hesitated for fear of an ambush, Tlie 
Colonel's followers, missing their leader, and seeing 
his dangerous predicament, rallied and returned ; 
and just as the British renewed their advance, 
Horry's party opened upon them a fire, which told 
with such effect that several of their number were 



108 LIFE OF MARION. 

killed, and the rest put to flight. Horry replaced 
his horse by shooting, with his pistol, a British sol- 
dier who was on the point of hewing him down. 
Thus was the Colonel's awkwardness the means of 
preserving the character of his troop ; though it 
must be acknowledged that skill is a much surer 
dependence in an extremity than accident. 

About the time of the affair at Black Min^o, 
Governor Eutledge, who was still in North Caro- 
lina, sent to Marion a Brigadier General's commis- 
sion. It conferred upon him, in addition to the 
usual military rank, extraordinary powers, such as 
are only granted to extraordinary men, at imminent 
junctures. It is not the least honourable feature in 
Marion's history, that so far from abusing the almost 
dictatorial authority which was conferred upon him, 
he hardly ever used it. He seldom received any 
but voluntary supplies from the inhabitants, holding 
it as an axiom that it was better to live upon the 
enemy than upon friends; and this considerate 
treatment of the impoverished inhabitants procured 
him much more aid than he could have wrested 
from them. It made them also firm, though often 
necessarily concealed friends ; and many, even in 
the Tory districts, whose loyalty was unsuspected, 
secretly kept him advised of the movements of the 
enemy. Governor Rutlcdge showed his apprecia- 



LIFE OF MARION. 109 

tion of character, and his knowledge of the proper 
qualities of a partisan officer, in the commission 
which he granted to Marion. He had seen the 
failures of " regular" officers, and knew that, in the 
peculiar warfare of which Carolina was the scene, 
Marion's tactics offered the only mode of keeping 
up any show of resistance to the enemy. Horry 
was not forgotten either; for the same messenger 
which brought Marion's commission as Brigadier, 
likewise brought his friend's as Colonel. 

We have from Horry's own pen his high appre- 
ciation of the honour done him. Indeed, the worthy 
but ambitious soldier appears to have been greatly 
elated. He idolized Marion ; and to be appointed 
colonel in his Brio^ade was a reward sufficient for 
all his past services, and a spur to future exertions. 
General Marion, who was a man, as we have seen, 
of cooler head, and one who had little taste for titles 
and military state, seems to have smiled at the idea 
of Governor Rutledge in making him a military 
commander, and almost a civil despot, in a tract of 
country over which the British had, at that time, 
absolute sway and command, except so far as Ma- 
rion himself disturbed them in it. While he kept 
his precarious foothold, shifting from swamp to 
swamp, and from thicket to thicket, he had done it 
independently of the American government, as well 



110 LIFE OF MARION. 

as in spite of the British. But he was too good a 
soldier, and understood human nature too well, not 
to know that there is strength in a name ; and he 
found, in his after-experience, that the militia came 
out even more readily to serve under General Ma- 
rion, than they did before he held that title. With 
this authority, added to his personal popularity and 
wonderful reputation for courage, and, what is a 
more potent consideration, for success^ he was a 
much more efficient officer after Governor Rut^ 
ledge's paper reached him than before — blank as 
that paper might have seemed in the grant of what 
the writer, himself not possessing, could not grant 
to another. 

After the affair at Black Mingo, the next consi- 
derable event was the surprise and breaking up of a 
Tory gathering on the Pedee. When Marion 
received advice of the collection of the Tories, he 
was just preparing to resume the field, and had 
perhaps already put his men in motion. They 
were refreshed and invigorated by the hospitalities 
and patriotism of the wealthy Whigs in Waccamaw, 
and were ready for adventure, though many of the 
Brigade were absent by Marion's indulgent custom 
of granting furloughs, before spoken of Both from 
his regular scouts, and from the volunteer informa- 
tion of the patriots, who now considered General 



LIFE OF MARION. Ill 

Marion's flag the rallying point of the friends of 
their country, he was informed of the fact that a 
British officer had arrived at a certain place on the 
Little Pedee river, provided w^ith arms, munitions, 
and provisions, to raise, organize, and equip a loyal - 
company. The first object of this party was to 
seek Marion, and on this occasion, as on many 
others, he saved those who would seek him the 
trouble of a search, by presenting himself to them 
with more alacrity and promptness than they ex- 
pected or desired. 

Horry's account of the arrival of the messenger, 
as recorded by Weems, is, like much of that writer's 
book, very animated and amusing. The boy, or 
" likely young fellow," as he is called, warned the 
General that he must keep a sharp look out; for 
the British recruiting officer had brought up a mat- 
ter of "two wagon loads of guns, great big English 
muskets — you can turn your thumb in them easy 
enough ! " Besides the guns, there were pistols 
and bayonets, and swords and saddles — all the et- 
ceteras and conveniences of warfare, which the 
brigade of Marion sadly lacked, and which formed 
the most alluring temptation that could be held out 
to men who had been glad to put up with fowling- 
pieces, and were enviably equipped when they 
could command buck-shot. 



112 LI F E OF M A R lO N. 

On the evening after receiving the intelUgence, 
Marion put his men in motion. They travelled at 
a round pace all night, and at daybreak v^ere with- 
in ten miles of the place of rendezvous. But to 
move by daylight was no part of Marion's policy ; 
so his party took refuge and concealment in a con- 
venient swamp, as was their custom. Scouts were 
then sent out to watch the road, and gain intelli- 
gence ; and at night they returned, bringing news 
of the movement of many men, all tending toward 
the place of which Marion had been notified. Colo- 
nel Tyngs had summoned the loyal to meet at that 
point, and organize for operations against the ene- 
mies of the King. 

At night the hardy soldiers, invigorated with 
their day's rest in the swamp — a rest which would 
have been sad fatigue to soldiers of any other stamp 
— took to the saddle again. A short ride brought 
them in sight of the encampment fires; for the 
loyal partisans seem never to have learned the cau- 
tion and craftiness of the "rebels." Marion was 
never thus surprised. Dismounting, and leaving 
their horses at a safe distance, to avoid alarm by 
the noise of their hoofs, and to act on foot as the 
character of the spot best served, Marion's party 
crept up, and took a hasty, but sufficient survey of 
the enemy. 



LIFE GP MARION. 113 

With a lack of caution which appears ahnost 
incredible, they appear to have neglected even to 
post a sentinel. Perhaps the force v^^as not yet 
organized ; and as they imagined Marion was sixty 
or seventy miles distant, and more likely to retreat 
from them than to advance, they did not think it 
necessary to annoy new recruits with camp regu- 
lations. Three fires were burning, at which pigs, 
turkeys, and corn bread were in preparation for sup- 
per ; whiskey had done, and was doing its work, 
fiddlers were playing, and the King's new levies, 
some dancing, some singing, and some drinking, 
little recked the terrible interruption of their fes- 
tivity which was at hand. 

Marion had with him sixty men. These he has- 
tily divided into parties of twenty, one party for 
each fire, and at the flash of his pistol, as the sig- 
nal, the whole sixty discharged their muskets upon 
the unsuspecting revellers. Awful was the con- 
fusion. The shrieks of the wounded as they fell, 
the groans of the dying — the frightened shouts of 
the fugitives who bounded off into the swamp — the 
neighing and plunging of frightened and wounded 
horses, and snapping of the young trees and branches 
as men and horses forced their way — all conspired 
to aid a scene of terror which mocks description. 

H 



114 LIFE OF MARION. 

Marion's men did not wait to repeat their fire. It 
would have been not merely unnecessary, but im- 
politic and cruel. Instantly running up, the com- 
mander of the party was secured as a prisoner, as 
also were some dozen men, whose surprise and con- 
sternation had not left them self-possession to escape. 
The precise number of killed and wounded is not 
known. Weems says twenty -three killed, and as 
many wounded, but this is probably an over-esti- 
mate. The baggage and arms captured were con- 
siderable, and most acceptable. There were nearly 
a hundred muskets, with ammunition ; and many 
horses were also secured. The vanquished party 
carried nothing away — the cards, fiddles, and bows 
were dropped and left upon the spot. It is said that 
some of the unhappy wretches were actually shot 
with their cards in their hands; and that in one 
case at least the death-grip was not relaxed, but the 
dead gambler clung still to his cards. 

How terrible is war ! The sight of one violent 
death in time of peace would mar the comfort of 
all who beheld it. These men, inured to distress 
and danger by their profession, and necessarily in- 
different to human suffering, removed the dead 
aside ; took the best care they could of the comfort 
of the wounded, for Marion's command included 



LIFE OF MARION. 115 

no surgeon ; reloaded the guns, and set the senti- 
nels, and then, after their two days' fasting, sat 
down and supped heartily upon the rude, but sub- 
stantial viands w^hich had been prepared for their 
foes. 



116 LIFE OF MARION. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Tory Recruits — Capture of Colonel Tynes — Effects of Marion's Suc- 
cess — British Testimony — Marion's Mode of Punishment — His great 
Influence — Tarleton despatched in Pursuit — Alarm by the Burning 
of Dwellings — Narrow Escape of Marion — Tarleton's Energy — His 
Abandonment of the Pursuit — Result of the Expedition — Sumter's 
Movements — Defeat of Wemyss — Defeat of a Detachment under 
Tarleton — Wound of Sumter. 



N the affair, with the account of which 
the last chapter closes, by far the 
greater number of the Tory party 
made their escape to the swamp. It 
may surprise the reader to hear that 
many of the fugitives afterward presented 
themselves to Marion, and were enrolled in 
his brigade. The same thing was done on 
several other similar occasions. To understand 
how this change could take place, the reader must 
remember what has been stated in a previous part 
of this book ; that the colonists were not permitted 
to remain neutral, but, having accepted protection, 
were compelled to bear arms. Or if this extremity 
of compulsion were not resorted to, the people knew 




LIFE OF MARION. 117 

that not to take up arms for the King was to be 
suspected of disaffection ; and to be suspected was, 
in those troublous times, to be proceeded against. 
Very few were so situated that they could remain 
inactive ; and many who would gladly have borne 
arms for their country, if a force had been present 
to protect them, were driven, in self-defence, into 
bearing arms against her. It is related of ancient 
generals that they placed deserters from the enemy 
in the posts where most desperate courage was re- 
quired, as it was supposed, and justly, that men 
who knew that death awaited them if captured, 
would sooner lose their lives in battle than to be 
made prisoners for ignominious execution. Un- 
doubtedly the same policy, though not to so great 
an extent, guided Marion. Men who had once 
borne arms for the King were mercilessly executed, 
if taken in arms against him ; and our partisan 
General could with confidence count on the bravery 
of soldiers who voluntarily incurred such a danger. 
There was no compulsion, and no terror was used 
to force men into- the patriot ranks ; while, on the 
other side, intimidation was a common mode of 
forcing levies. 

There appears to be some confusion in the ac- 
counts of Marion's movements at this period. 
Weems makes Marion a night or two after attack 



118 LIPEOFMARION. 

another Tory encampment, which was in charge 
of Colonel Tynes, and over which, pouncing upon 
the enemy at midnight, he obtained as complete a 
victory as in the other instance. Mr. Simms, who 
has carefully digested the different narratives, sup- 
poses there was but one battle. At any rate Colo- 
nel Tynes was made a prisoner, and his hopes of 
Tory levies were blasted. The second attack is 
represented to have been made on a post on the 
northern branch of the Black River. 

The successes and sudden movements of Marion 
very much annoyed the loyalists ; and in the same 
desfree elated the Whi^s. News was also received 
of the approach of General Greene, with the re- 
mains of Gates's army, and additional recruits. 
Marion was keeping the fire ahve until his arrival ; 
and preserving rather more than the mere show of 
resistance. The conquered state would not remain 
conquered; for Marion appeared everywhere pre- 
sent, and gave large parties of the Tories sufficient 
to do to trace and pursue him. The singular and 
almost anomalous character of his troops — fighting 
for love of country only, without pay and without 
rations — made them but the more desperate enemies 
to contend with. They had no military pride and 
state to support, and, as we have already stated, 
when to hold together was inadvisable, disappeared 



LIFE OP MARION. 119 

at once in swamp and thicket, mocking pursuit, 
like the ignis fatuus. 

The British officers, as sufficiently appears from 
their correspondence, and from their published me- 
moirs, were fully sensible of his efficiency. This 
example started up other partisans in different di- 
rections, some of which did not hesitate to push 
even to the very gates of Charleston. Chafed and 
embittered by the cruelties which the loyalists 
visited upon them, and eager in the hate which a 
civil war always engenders, they only needed ex- 
ample to induce them to act ; and the adventures 
of Marion, exaggerated no doubt in the recital, car- 
ried the spirit of adventure wherever they were re- 
lated. It was a thing to boast of to have served, 
even if on one expedition only, in his company; 
and this feeling put in his power a mode of punish- 
ment at once easily applied and effective. Poltroon- 
ery and other unworthy conduct he punished by 
expulsion from the brigade, causing notice thereof 
to be posted in places where it could be read ; and 
this was the severest penalty that he ever found it 
necessary to inflict. The scorn of the true-hearted, 
and the public contempt, were punishment enough. 
His influence over his fellow-citizens was im- 
mense ; and although Cornwallis, judging others 
by his own policy, chose to attribute this influence 



120 LIFEOF MARION. 

to the terror of his punishments, and the promise 
of plunder, all contemporaneous accounts unite in 
giving this assertion a contradiction. He was never 
cruel, and in regard to plunder always spared pro- 
perty, and forbore to waste or burn. That he did 
not take provisions and munitions of war from the 
known enemies of freedom is not pretended ; for 
such necessaries were legitimate spoil. The food 
of himself and men was of a marvellously meagre 
description. There was no riot or wassail among 
them ; and the wonder is, that upon a diet so mea- 
gre, they supported their fatigues so well, and exe- 
cuted such feats of activity and daring. 

It became highly necessary that 3/r. Marion, as 
the British styled him, should be caught, or driven 
out of the state. Colonel Tarleton, who had a high 
reputation for activity, undertook the feat ; but he 
very narrowly escaped capture himself, while on 
his way from Charleston to join his legion, which 
he had ordered to meet him on the Wateree. No- 
thing but the celerity of his movements, in which 
he was nearer a match for Marion than any other 
officer in the British service, saved him. Marion 
placed his men in ambush at Nelson's Ferry, where 
he thought Tarleton must cross, but unfortunately 
the Colonel had passed two days before. When 
Marion learned this fact, supposing that Tarleton 



LIFE OF MARION. 121 

had still only the small body of horse with him 
with which he left Charleston, he pushed on in 
pursuit ; and might have fallen into a bad predica- 
ment, but for the propensity in which Tarleton 
must indulge, of burning houses. 

Marion had taken a strong post in the woods, 
unconscious of the proximity of Tarleton, who, 
having effected a junction with his legion, was only 
a few miles off. His suspicions were awakened by 
two circumstances. The first was that rare event, 
the disappearance of one of his men, under circum- 
stances which made it evident that he had deserted 
to the enemy. The other was a bright light in the 
direction of the residence of General Richardson, 
a well-known Whig. Marion knew too well the 
character of the progress of the enemy not to sus- 
pect what this indicated. His doubts were soon set 
at rest by the arrival of General Richardson at his 
encampment, witli the news that Tarleton was with 
his whole force at the plantation, and that the fires 
which Marion saw were from the burning of the 
buildings. 

Marion's determination was at once taken. He 
moved off into the swamp, pursuing a path which 
no men but his would have undertaken by night. 
Hardly was he out of the place, when Tarleton's 
forces moved into it, under the guidance of the 



122 LIFE OF MARION. 

deserter. Sure of his prey, he was deeply cha- 
grined to find the active partisan gone. Marion 
was but a few hours in his new position before he 
changed again, and retreated some twenty-five or 
thirty miles farther, to Benbow's Ferry. This 
position he strengthened by felUng trees, and 
placing other obstructions ; and here, with his 
force, now numbering about five hundred men, he 
waited Tarleton's approach. 

That officer, with his usual impetuosity, pushed 
on to the second place of encampment in pursuit. 
Again the careful commander, as we have seen, 
had eluded him. Marion had planted himself now 
where the advantages of his position compensated 
for the superiority of the enemy's force ; and nothing 
could have suited our hero better than the approach 
of Tarleton. But that officer, having marched 
twenty-five miles, now found a dismal swamp before 
him, and Marion still ten miles distant. It is said 
that at the sight of Ox Swamp, as it was called, he 
gave up, discouraged. His men and horses were 
wearied ; the ground before him was such as he 
knew Marion's men were at home in, and the whole 
prospect was too ambiguous. " Come, boys," he 
said, " we '11 go back. We can soon find the game 
cock — but as for this swamp fox,\\\exe is no catching 
him." By the game cock he meant Sumter; and 



LIFEOFMARION. 123 

from this speech of Tarleton's the two partisans 
were respectively honoured by their followers with 
the above titles. 

The result of this expedition very much cha- 
grined Colonel Tarleton, while to Marion it was 
almost as good as a victory, and produced a greater 
effect in his favour than even his famous surprises 
of parties of the enemy. Tarleton had been 
regarded as almost invincible. Every thing he 
had undertaken had produced some result; inso- 
much that his pursuit was considered as almost 
inevitable capture. But Marion had proved too 
wily for him ; and without the loss of a man had 
shown that even Colonel Tarleton could be foiled. 
The circumstance that the Americans, when they 
might have crossed the Black River, and effectually 
eluded pursuit, waited on the same side of it for an 
enemy who did not advance, lost nothing in the 
narration. Tarleton in his memoirs labours hard 
to make it appear that Marion's retreat was a flight 
of pure fear, and that his pursuer abandoned the 
chase only because he was recalled by Lord Corn- 
wallis. But the utmost that can be fairly admitted 
is that Tarleton readily improved a pretext to aban- 
don the chase, of which he would not have been in 
such haste to avail himself if he had not been com- 
pletely foiled })y Mr. Marion. Certain it seems 



1 24 L I F E O F M A R I O N . 

tliat if he had pushed on to the position of Marion 
the result would have been anything but triumph- 
ant for the British arms; and the sharp-shooters 
of the brigade would have given the wearied loy- 
alists such a reception as it was well judged in 
Tarleton not to risk. 

Quitting the swamp fox to pursue the game cock, 
Tarleton met with little better success in that quar- 
ter. Sumter had reappeared in arms; and as he 
was scarcely less troublesome than Marion, Corn- 
wallis despatched Tarleton to pursue him. Gene- 
ral Sumter, with a mocking courage, had advanced 
within twenty-eight miles of the encampment of 
Cornwallis, at Winnsboro'. Colonel Wemyss was 
despatched by the British commander-in-chief to 
surprise Sumter ; but Sumter surprised Cornwallis 
by defeating the attacking force, and severely 
wounding and capturing Wemyss. Then Tarleton 
was ordered after the partisan with a large force, 
and in the sure expectation of defeating him. The 
American General saw no propriety in waiting to 
be overwhelmed by a heavier force than his own, 
and retreated. Tarleton, who with all his impetu- 
osity and courage lacked judgment, pushed after 
him with four hundred mounted men, thinking he 
had nothing to do but to overtake a fugitive. But 
when Sumter, who did not run without knowing 



L I F E O F M A R I O N . 1 25 

from what he ran, perceived that Tarleton was pur- 
suing him with a detachment only, he halted on the 
banks of the Tyger River, and received him with 
such a destructive and rapid fire that a total defeat 
of the British party occurred Tarleton lost a hun- 
dred killed, and had twice as many wounded. The 
Americans, with a disparity which seems hardly 
credible, had only six, killed and wounded. But 
among the wounded, and very severely too, was 
General Sumter. His men made a conveyance of 
a bullock's hide, suspended between two horses, 
and in this way, guarded by a hundred devoted 
followers, he was carried over the line to North 
Carolina ; where for a long time he rested, incapa- 
ble of service. But the blow he had given the ter- 
rible Tarleton, hitherto unconquered, was a most 
important event, and the opening of better and 
brighter prospects. 



126 



LIFE OP MARION. 



CHAPTER X. 



British Reinforcements from New York sent to the South — Frustration 
of the Enemy's Plans — Pursuit of Major Ferguson by the Americans 
— Battle of King's Mountain — Total Defeat of the Tories — Cornwallis 
falls back to Winnsboro — Leslie ordered to Charleston by Sea — 
Chain of British Posts — Marion's Movements — Incidents near George- 
town — The Whig Lady's Artifice — Defeat of Melton— Murder of 
Marion's Nephew — Affair with Colonel Gainey — Unhappy Character 
of the Contest 




'OLONEL TARLETON found it 

politic and convenient to denominate 
the severe check which he liad re- 
ceived from Sumter a victoiij. Con- 
gress was, however, so well satisfied with 
the character of this victory that it was 
made the subject of a resolution of thanks 
to General Sumter and his command. The 
severe wound of their leader indeed induced the 
militia under Sumter to disperse; but he kept pos- 
session of the ground long enough for Tarleton to 
have followed up the victory, had he been so dis- 
posed. 



LIFE OF MARION. 127 

The pertinacious and hardy course of Marion, 
and of other partisan leaders, caused a defeat of the 
British plan of the campaign. After the defeat of 
Gates, it was thought by Sir Henry Clinton that 
of course no serious opposition could be made to 
Cornwallis in the Carolinas. South Carolina was 
regarded as a conquered state, and North Carolina 
as in nearly the same position. Sir Henry despatched 
a body of troops, about three thousand in number, 
to the South, to complete and extend the conquest. 
These troops were to take possession of the South- 
ern part of Virginia, and thus add to what was 
deemed the conquered area; and no doubt was 
entertained that an easy junction would be effected 
between General Leslie, with his reinforcement, 
and Lord Cornwallis. 

But, during the progress of events which we 
have been describing in South Carolina, there had 
been warm work in the North state. British and 
Tory messengers had been sent there, urging the 
loyalists to take up arms and declare their alle- 
giance; and Major Ferguson embodied a large 
party of loyalists in the western part of North 
Carolina. After his force was organized, he delayed 
his march to meet Cornwallis, who was advancing 
toward North Carolina. His delay was intended 
to intercept a company of Whigs, which had been 



128 LIFE OF MARION. 

raised by Colonel Clarke ; but far from intercepting 
or checking any movement of the Americans, it 
resulted in a final and most conclusive check to 
Major Ferguson and his command. 

Several companies of Whig volunteers combined, 
and new accessions were daily made to them. The 
whole were under command of Colonel Campbell 
of Virginia, who was appointed by General Gates, 
at the request of the volunteers ; and Major Fer- 
guson found, in view of these formidable demon- 
strations, that it became highly necessary for him 
to retreat toward the south. This he did with no 
inconsiderable degree of expedition ; but he was as 
sharply pursued. Nine hundred picked men were 
detached from the American army to follow him ; 
and as he found he must inevitably be overtaken, 
he chose a strong position on King's Mountain, and 
awaited the attack. He had sent several messen- 
gers to apprise Lord Cornwallis of his danger ; but 
in every case they were intercepted. 

When the Americans came up, they immediately 
rushed to the assault with great impetuosity. The 
action lasted about an hour, becoming general in 
about five minutes from the time of its commence- 
ment. The assailants received several repulses, 
made by the British forces with the courage of 
desperation ; but while Ferguson was driving back 



LIFE OF MARION. 129 

one corps of his assailants with the bayonet, the 
gaUing fire of the rest called off his attention. The 
fiercely contested struggle ended with the death of 
the British commander, who died instantly of his 
wound ; and the courage of his soldiers gave way 
with the death of their gallant chief They demanded 
quarter, and eight hundred and ten surrendered, of 
whom one hundred were British troops. One hun- 
dred and fifty of the loyalist party were killed upon 
the field, and about as many wounded — and fifteen 
hundred stand of arms were taken. The loss of the 
Americans was inconsiderable, as they fought under 
cover of trees, wherever possible; but among the 
killed was Colonel Williams of South Carolina. 

We are sorry to state that at the conclusion of 
this engagement ten of the most active of the loy- 
alists were selected from among the prisoners, and 
hanged upon the spot. This was done in retalia- 
tion for the executions which Cornwallis ordered, 
after the battle of Camden ; and much as we must 
deplore such an occurrence, we cannot be surprised 
at it. It was a means of checking such executions 
by the enemy, which finds precedents in all war- 
fare. The cruelty of one party causes the other 
to be inhuman, and innocent prisoners are usually 
made to suffer, in retaliation for the treatment which 
others receive in a similar situation. 

I 



1 30 L I F E O F M A R I O N . 

The suddenly mustered volunteers who had as- 
sembled to attack Ferguson, having more completely 
accomplished the object of their rally than their 
most sanguine expectations led them to hope, dis- 
persed and returned to their homes. This very 
circumstance made the posture of things seem more 
formidable to Cornwallis. If it had been an army 
raised to be kept in the field which had performed 
this feat, there would have been hope that its de- 
struction w^ould ultimately have broken the strength 
of the Whigs, and prevented the rallying of another 
force. But when men started from their plantations, 
apparently by a common and simultaneous impulse 
— demolished a hostile party, and then returned to 
their homes, ready to rise again when another occa- 
sion for action presented itself — the case was much 
more serious. Such an enemy can never be found, 
except when its own choice brings it into the field ; 
and when men thus rise, it is usually to victory : 
choosing their own time, they have, so to speak, the 
war in their own hands. 

Cornwallis fell back to Winnsboro, w^here in the 
last chapter we spoke of his position. The troops 
sent from New York by Sir Henry Clinton had 
overrun and taken possession of some of the Vir- 
ginia counties on the James River, but were at this 
time quartered in Portsmouth ; which place Gene- 



LIFE OF MARION. 131 

ral Leslie had begun to fortify, when he received 
orders from Lord Cornwallis to proceed to Charles- 
ton by sea. The North Carolina experience of the 
loyalists, and the necessity which Leslie had dis- 
covered for making himself snng in Portsmouth, 
had changed the estimate of "conquered country" 
on which the movements of Leslie had been ori- 
ginally planned. And at Winnsboro Cornwallis 
was compelled to be content to wait for the arrival 
of reinforcements. Meanwhile, as related in the 
chapter preceding, Marion was found so trouble- 
some, that Tarleton was despatched on his ineffec- 
tual mission to take him ; and Sumter was so auda- 
cious as to sit down almost within gun-shot of 
Cornw^allis himself, and to defeat the parties sent 
to take him. 

The British posts in South Carolina and Georgia 
were judiciously chosen, both for the purposes of 
armino: and defendinor the Tories and ' obtainins: 
subsistence. The principal points held by the 
British were : Georgetown, Camden, Winnsboro, 
Ninety-Six, and Augusta; and within this chain 
or circle several others, on the routes from one to 
another of the main posts. Marion by his scouts 
and spies was aware of the movements and inten- 
tions of the enemy ; and it can hardly be considered 
a mere figure of speech to say that the British were 



132 LIFE OF MARION. 

practically prisoners at these several points. They 
could not move between them, except with a heavy 
force, without the danger of being- pounced upon 
by parties of the quick-moving partisans ; and even 
when large bodies marched they were not secure 
from sudden onsets, by parties who did not wait to 
receive any return. Prisoners and baggage were 
suddenly snatched away ; and the very guns of the 
posts offered no intimidation to the daring assailants. 
One of the posts which we have mentioned, 
Georgetown, Marion resolved to surprise, and made 
his dispositions accordingly. He advanced with 
caution and secrecy to a swamp within two miles 
of Georgetown, where he concealed the main body 
of his troops, and sent two parties under Major 
Horry and Captain Melton to reconnoitre. Horry's 
party, while in ambush at the side of the road, saw 
two mounted officers accompanying two ladies in a 
chaise. These they did not deem it worth while 
to moles't ; both because it would create an alarm, 
with small advantage if any, and because it would 
unnecessarily expose the women. iVs the George- 
town gallants approached the woods, the ladies 
became alarmed, and decided to proceed to a friend's 
house near ; while the officers returned to George- 
town. Horry and his men, unaware of the mes- 
sage upon which tlie officers returned, which was 



L I F E O F M A R I O N . 133 

to procure an escort, repaired also to the house of a 
well-known Whig, to procure refreshment. 

Not a little to their surprise, when the partisans 
reached the house, they found the two ladies there 
who had passed them upon the road ; and these 
ladies immediately commenced beseeching them to 
go away, assuring them that the family was poor ; 
and begging, as the master of it was absent, they 
would not affright women. The lady of the house 
said not a word while all this was going on, but 
managed to procure an instant's interview with. 
Horry, Her position was indeed difficult. If she 
entertained the party, she would run the risk of 
having the house burned down by the British. She 
apprised Horry that the officers had returned to 
town for an escort; and begged him to threaten 
violence, and storm in such a way that it would 
appear he robbed the house and barn of refresh- 
ments, to which she assured him he was heartily 
welcome. The stranger ladies were loyalists, from 
Georgetown ; and " such was the farce," Horry 
remarks, *' which the Whigs in those days, both 
ladies and gentlemen, were obliged to play when they 
had any of their Tory acquaintances about them." 

Hardly had man and horse eaten of the food pro- 
cured by this pretended robbery, when Horry's 
sentinels gave the alarm. The men instantly sprung 



134 LIFE OF MARION. 

to their saddles. The escort for which the officers 
had been to Georgetown had arrived, and, being 
unsuspicious of any foe, were completely taken by 
surprise as Marion's men dashed out to meet them. 
The British instantly wheeled, and fled. They 
were seventeen in number, and well mounted ; and 
were commanded by an officer named Merritt, who 
was a prodigy of address and valour. As the Brit- 
ish rode off, the American party dashed after them ; 
and of the whole party it is said only two escaped. 
Captain Men^itt and a serjeant. All were killed or 
made prisoners. Captain Merritt beat off three 
assailants, two of whom he engaged at once, being 
a most dexterous swordsman; and he finally escaped 
by suddenly abandoning his horse, and shooting off 
at right angles into a swamp. It was a subject of 
great pleasure to Horry, some years aftenvard, that 
this officer escaped. At the close of the war, Horry 
met Captain Merritt in New York, — was recog- 
nized by him, and dined at his house. After the 
first ceremonies of introduction were over, ]\Ierritt 
recalled this skirmish, and asked Horry if he were 
not in it. On being answered in the affirmative, 
he again enquired of Horry if he did not remember 
how handsomely one of the British officers gave 
him the slip that day. On being answered in the 
affirmative, he continued : " Well, I was that officer; 



LIFE OF MARION. 135 

and of all the frights 1 ever had in my life, that 
was the most complete. Will you believe me, sir, 
when I assure you that I went out that morning 
with my locks of as bright an auburn as ever curled 
upon the forehead of youth ; and by the time I had 
crawled out of the swamp into Georgetown, that 
night, they were as grey as a badger ! I was well 
nigh taking an oath never to forgive you, daring 
breath, for frightening me so confoundedly. But 
away with all malice ! You must go dine with me, 
and I '11 show you a lovelier woman than either of 
those that rode in the chaise that day." 

Captain Melton, who was sent at the same time 
with Horry to reconnoitre, fell in with a party of 
loyalists much superior in numbers to his own, 
and after a short and sharp action was compelled to 
retreat. In Captain Melton's party was Gabriel 
Marion, a nephew of our hero, who had volun- 
teered. His horse being shot under him, he fell a 
prisoner into the hands of the Tories. He was 
recognized, and with several other prisoners massa- 
cred in cold blood. One of the loyalists strove hard 
to save him, but to no purpose. The spirit of vin- 
dictive cruelty was now increasing upon both sides; 
and the fact that Gabriel Wcis beloved by his uncle 
would have been sufficient cause for his butchery, 



136 LIFE OF MARION. 

even though he had not distinguished himself as a 
gallant and active Whig. 

On the next day Major Horry had another brush 
with a Tory party. Horry surprised the enemy 
while yet, from some reason, they had not formed ; 
and upon tlie charge of the Whigs they dispersed. 
The Major, probably from the character of his 
horsemanship, was left behind with a lad named 
Gwinn, while his party pursued the fugitives. A 
patrol of nine mounted loyalists at this instant pre- 
sented themselves; and while Horry challenged 
them, the boy Gwinn shot their leader, who had 
already raised his musket to fire ; and as the Tory 
fell, the charge from his piece killed Horry's horse. 
Gwinn immediately dismounted, and gave Major 
Horry his horse; and at that instant a party of 
Whigs, hearing the firing, dashed up in season to 
save their commander, and to rescue four prisoners 
from the hands of the loyalists. 

In this day's skirmishing a little affair occurred 
which much mortified Colonel Gainey, a Tory of 
some repute, and his friends. Gainey was con- 
sidered an exceedingly able commander, and Ma- 
rion's men had often heard of him from their Tory 
prisoners. It chanced that he was in command of 
the very party of the dispersion of which we have 
just spoken. Sergeant Macdonald, without know- 



LIFE OF MARION. 137 

ing his name, selected him, as a fine-looking fellow, 
and nobly mounted, as the object of his particular 
pursuit. Indeed it was his horse that the Sergeant, 
who appeared to have a great deal of taste that way, 
particularly coveted. It was a hard pull, for Gain- 
ey's horse was an even match for Macdonald's. At 
last the latter drew near enough to get a blow at 
Gainey with his bayonet. It so happened that the 
bayonet became detached from the gun ; and though 
Gainey escaped into Georgetown, he did it with 
Macdonald's bayonet sticking in his back ! 

During the time that Marion was hanging about 
the skirts of the British at Georgetown, a mad 
adventure took place, which showed that the bravest 
of Marion's men needed the sagacity and prudence 
of their leader to direct their wild couraore to a good 
purpose. Macdonald, with four or five others, being 
sent to reconnoitre the lines, the young mad-caps, 
having encountered the bottle enemy, took it into 
their heads to attack Georgetown — and actually 
dashed into that place, huzzaing and shouting, as 
if they had an army behind them. They were 
able to sweep through the street, and actually to 
make good their escape before the British perceived 
the trick which had been put upon them ; a fool- 
hardy adventure, of no possible utility, except to 
show what the advice of whiskey is really worth. 



138 LIFE OF MARION. 

To return to the order of our narrative. The lad 
Gwinn was presented by Marion with the horse 
and equipments of the Enghsh officer, whose death, 
by his musket, had saved the Hfe of Major Horry. 
Gwinn remained with Marion until the close of the 
war, and distinguished himself by many acts of 
address and courage. 

We are pained to say that one of the late prison- 
ers was shot in the night by one of Marion's men. 
This prisoner, whether justly or not, was charged 
with being the murderer of Gabriel Marion ; and 
summary revenge was thus taken. This event gave 
Marion great pain, and he severely reprimanded 
the officer of the guard, because he did not shoot 
the murderer of the prisoner in his charge upon 
the spot. The contest now assumed a terrible and 
sanguinary character ; for violence and murder, 
once begun, is not easily stayed. 



LIFE OF MARION. 



139 



CHAPTER XL 



The Camp at Snow's Island — Its Defences — Sanguinary Warfare — 
Difficulties of Marion's Command — Tlie Plunder of Croft's House — 
Marion's Proceedings against the Offenders — Incipient Mutiny — Con- 
tumacy of the Culprits — Suppression of the Mutiny — Expulsion and 
Outlawry of the Ringleaders — The Potato Dinner. 




HE encounters with parties of the 
enemy, which we noticed in the 
chapter preceding, defeated the pur- 
pose for which Marion had ap- 
proached Georgetown. His object had been 
to surprise that place. The occupation of it 
by the British was a serious disadvantage to 
him ; but he was too wise to risk his men in 
open and regular attack — success in which 
would scarcely have compensated for the inevitable 
effusion of blood. He therefore abandoned the 
purpose for the present; and retiring to Snow's 
Island, at the confluence of Lynch's Creek and the 
Pedee, fortified himself in a more permanent en- 
campment than he had hitherto found it expedient 



an 



140 LIFE OF MARIO xV. 

to occupy. The date of his encampment was about 
the opening of the year 1781. General Greene 
was in the field, and the patriots were encouraged 
by the hope of a respectable and organized army. 
Marion trusted now that the desultory warfare, by 
which he had so adroitly kept up the spirit of re- 
sistance, was to be succeeded by military operations 
of a more imposing and permanently efficient cha- 
racter. The whole country appeared to partake of 
his confidence ; and notwithstandinir that his en- 
campment was situated in a district in which the 
Tories were numerous, reinforcements and recruits 
daily reached him. 

His encampment was approachable only by 
friends. The island, which when reached was 
spacious and well wooded, was in its eligible sites 
for culture planted with Indian-corn. It abounded 
also in live stock and provisions. Marion first 
secured all the boats in the vicinity; and reserving 
a few that he needed, destroyed the rest. The 
bridges of course he broke up ; for Marion's brigade 
needed no such assistance to cross a river ; and the 
approaches to the banks he obstructed, by felling 
trees across the ordinary paths. He declared the 
country under martial law, and issued orders to his 
officers to seize all ammunition and horses for the 
use of the army ; to prevent the transportation of 



LIFE OF MARION. 141 

stores and comfort to the British posts, and to hold 
all men as enemies who supplied the British with 
provisions. 

Parties were continually issuing from the encamp- 
ment to scour the country, which was thus held 
under the strictest watch. With the increasing 
strength of Marion, and his growing command over 
the tract of country in which he was posted, the 
sanguinary folly of the Tories increased. Prison- 
ers were massacred without mercy ; and among 
other instances recorded is the murder of a com- 
pany of Whigs, under Lieutenant Roger Gordon, 
who surrendered to a party of Tories under Captain 
Butler. Finding themselves surprised, they sub- 
mitted on terms; notwithstanding which stipula- 
tion, as soon as they laid down their arms they were 
killed upon the spot. The evil commencement of 
Cornwallis at Camden, and the other atrocities of 
the British and Tory commanders, in disposing 
of their prisoners as rebels, liable to execution for 
treason, had caused such a feeling of murderous 
exasperation, that prisoners ceased to be taken. 
" Tarleton's Quarters," had now become the fearful 
cry ; and the only hope for the vanquished, whether 
Whig or Tory, was escape to the swamps. 

This cruelty was in every possible way discou- 
raged by Marion and his officers. Marion, as we 



142 LIFE OF MARION. 

have seen, expressed his strong disapprobation of 
the murder of the man who was suspected or 
accused of the assassination of his nephew, Gabriel. 
But volunteers who were induced to take up arms 
by a desire to avenge the personal wrongs and 
injuries they had suffered ; men who had perhaps 
lost a son, a brother, or a parent by the cruelty of 
the marauding Tory parties; whose houses had 
been burned, and whose property devastated, were 
not disposed to listen to any plea for humanity, or 
to forego the opportunity to revenge themselves. 
The war had now lasted nearly five years ; and in 
the peculiarly unfortunate condition of Carolina, a 
fearful accumulation of hate had arisen between the 
Whigs and Tories. Order and government were 
necessarily set aside. The rights of individuals, 
and the guarantees of property, were forgotten. 
Even the rules of warfare, which are usually al- 
lowed among civilized nations to temper the evils 
of a state of hostility, were disregarded ; and the 
contest became one in which bitter animosity stop- 
ped short of no method of inflicting injury ; and 
hesitated at no barbarity. 

Marion's command, always difficult, became 
under these circumstances more T)nerous than ever. 
It was extremely liard to control the volunteers 
under such circumstances, and brought together 



LIFE OF MARION. 143 

by such motives. A rash or intemperate man 
would have lost all influence and command over 
troops of such a character ; and Marion had many 
opportunities for the exercise of his peculiar talents 
as an officer. There were not wantinor men even 
in his brigade who sought pretext and oppor- 
tunity to raise the standard of mutiny ; and in his 
situation it became exceedingly difficult to risk an 
authority, which, once disputed or defied, would be 
lost for ever. 

A crisis at length occurred. Mr. George Croft, 
a wealthy Whig, who had often befriended the 
patriot army by supplies, intelligence, and in every 
other mode which he could, without openly com- 
mitting himself, being an invalid, was compelled to 
leave his plantation and repair to Georgetown for 
the benefit of medical advice. Marion placed a 
sentinel at his house, to prevent its being pillaged ; 
trusting that a single man would be sufficient, with 
his general's word as a warrant, to prevent any dis- 
turbance of the property of the absentee. Two 
of the officers of the brigade, however, one of them 
a major, in spite of the remonstrances of the senti- 
nel, entered the house and rifled it; and one of 
them, as if in defiance, wore Mr. Croft's sword, of 
which he had thus possessed himself The facts 



144 LIFE OF MARION. 

were communicated to Major Horry bj Mrs. Croft, 
and by him to General Marion. 

Marion instantly despatched Major Horry to the 
principal offender, with a request that he would a- 
once send to him the sword of Mr. Croft. The aid 
soon returned with an insolent message. The cul- 
prit declared that he had no sword of Mr. Croft's 
— that it was his own, taken in war ; and that if 
Marion wished for it, he must come for it himself. 
Marion desired Horry to go back and repeat the 
demand ; but that officer entreated to be spared a 
second errand of the kind, as he feared that the 
insolence of the other would provoke him to vio- 
lence. The mutineer — for a mutiny the affair had 
now become — was at the head of a body of troops 
known as the Georgia Refugees; and it now seemed 
evident that he counted upon their support, in re- 
sisting the orders of his superior officer. The intel- 
liorence of what was efoingc forward soon drew 
Marion's officers about him ; for the posture of 
things was painfully critical. 

A messenger was now despatched to the muti- 
neer, requesting him to report himself at head-quar- 
ters ; and he came, accompanied by the other officer 
who had participated in this offence. Marion re- 
ceived them with firmness ; and recapitulated, for 



LIFE OF MARION. 145 

the information of those present, the circumstances 
'^f the case. He stated the services and comfort 
which Croft had rendered the patriots; and said 
that he had debated with himself as to whether it 
could be necessary to put a guard over the house 
of such a man, to defend it from those whom he 
had befriended. The mutineer replied that " Croft 
was a Tory, and was even then with the enemy in 
Georgetown." Marion answered with a civil, but 
peremptory request, that the sword should be deli- 
vered to him ; and the other, with an insolent oath, 
declared he would not surrender it. 

Marion's officers looked at each other, and at 
the General. They stood ready, at a word or a nod, 
to seize upon the culprits. Each had his hand 
upon his sword. Horry, who had been stung with 
the previous insolence of the offenders, could not 
contain himself, but exclaimed, with an oath, that 
if he had command of the brigade those two fellows 
should be hung in five minutes. Marion rather 
sharply checked his friend : " This is no business 
of yours, sir ; — they are both before me !" He then 
repeated his request for the sword ; perhaps from a 
wish to gain time ; and perhaps from a wish to give 
the offenders still a loop-hole of escape. The fact 
that Croft was in Georgetown, and that he had 
taken no open part in behalf of the patriots, gave 

K 



140 LIFEOF MARION. 

some colour of defence to the mutineers. But, on 
the other hand, it was not only necessary for Ma- 
rion to preserve discipline in his camp, but it was 
of the last importance that he should show the 
country that he could protect the property of such 
persons as rendered aid and comfort to his army. It 
was necessary that he should vindicate his honour, 
and evince that his command was so well esta- 
blished that his word could be taken for the conduct 
of his forces. 

The mutineer still refused. " Sergeant of the 
guard," said Marion, in a voice of calm determina- 
tion, " bring a file of soldiers." In an instant the 
guard presented themselves. The culprits looked 
round the circle, and found no face which offered 
encouragement or sympathy. If there had been 
a disposition on the part of any to side with the 
mutineers, the calm and prudent course of Marion 
had defeated it. A sign was exchanged between 
the two offenders. The holder of the sword ten- 
dered it to JNlarion, with the remark, in a tone of 
sulky submission, " General, you need not have 
sent for the guard." Marion now refused to receive 
it; but referred him to the Serjeant, to whom, now 
doubly humiliated, he delivered it. There was no 
arrest ; the two officers, one holding the commission 
of a major, and the other of a captain, slunk away. 



LIFE OF MARION. 147 

They were still permitted opportunity for contri- 
tion; but exhibiting none, Marion expelled them 
from his brigade. And as their conduct subse- 
quently became notorious for cruelty, and offences 
against humanity, Marion declared them outlaws, 
and caused proclamations to be posted, announcing 

that Major and Captain did not belong 

to his brigade; that they were banditti, robbers, 
and thieves, and were hereby declared out of the 
protection of the laws, and might be killed wherever 
found. 

Thus, in a bloodless but effectual manner was 
this threatening mutiny suppressed. And not only 
was the point of re-establishing his authority car- 
ried, but another not less important was established. 
This was that Marion would not sanction plunder 
and massacre. Those in the brigade who had 
favoured the derelicts, did it to defend the principle 
of retaliation "upon the Tories. They wished to 
proceed by burning, plunder, and massacre against 
the loyalists ; but Marion was resolved that if he 
could not entirely check the spirit of inhuman 
revenge, he would at least prevent the sanction of 
his command from being even inferred as in favour 
of such proceedings. The circumstances attending 
the death of his nephew, and his well-known affec- 
tion for that estimable young man, were probably 



148 L I F E O F M A R I O N . 

counted upon by those who desired to "cry havoc," 
€is Ukely to induce him to relax the strict prohibi- 
tion which he had issued against unnecessary cru- 
elty ; but in this they were disappointed. The 
very fact that he had personal reason, if any had, 
to hate the Tories, made his resolute forbearance 
the more commanding. 

It was at the encampment on Snow's Island that 
the famous potato dinner took place; The account 
of this is one of the most pleasant legends of the 
Revolution, and has been celebrated throughout 
the land in song and story. It forms the subject 
of one of our most agreeable national pictures, the 
production of the pencil of John H. White, of 
Charleston. It has been circulated in various forms 
as an engraving, being first published by the Art 
Union, and never fails to please. The story is, that 
a British officer arrived at Marion's encampment 
with a flag of truce, to negotiate an exchange of 
prisoners. His business finished, he was about to 
depart, when Marion pressed him to remain and 
share his dinner. The guest looked round, and 
perceived a fire, but no tokens of anything in the 
way of a banquet. Curiosity, or politeness, or both 
motives, induced him to accept the invitation ; and 
Marion then directed one of the men to serve the 
repast. 



LIFE OF MARION. 149 

The plate on which the American general's din- 
ner was served was a clean piece of bark, and the 
viands themselves, which the man proceeded to 
unearth from among the glowing ashes, were tole- 
rably simple, being neither more nor less than 
sweet potatoes, baked to a nicety. The General 
ate heartily, pressing his guest to follow his exam- 
ple. The stranger was at once awed and surprised 
at what he had seen, and forgave the dinner in the 
pleasure he received at being the guest of a soldier 
so renowned as Francis Marion ; but a soldier 
without any of the factitious and extrinsic circum- 
stances which usually accompany military dignity. 
As our readers are already aware, there was nothing 
commanding or noble in the presence of Marion ; 
and his men looked like anything but an encamp- 
ment of soldiers. The whole scene was decidedly 
unmilitary, so far as ornament and parade are con- 
cerned ; but there was a look of determination in 
the swarthy faces of the men who passed and 
repassed, and an air of self-denial in the hard fare 
to which these soldiers of liberty submitted, which 
were far more formidable than any mere military 
pomp. 

His politeness could not, however, prevent the 
officer from inquiring whether this frugal mode of 
living was Marion's usual fare. The General in- 



150 LIFE OF MARION. 

formed him that on that day, having a guest, he 
regarded himself as fortunate in having rather a 
better dinner than usual. The conversation con- 
tinued till the Briton was apprised that Marion's 
pay was no better than his rations ; and the story 
goes on to say that, on his return to the British gar- 
rison, the officer was so much impressed with what 
he had heard and seen, and so convinced of the 
impossibility of overcoming soldiers who fought 
thus upon principle, and for the pure love of liber- 
ty, that he decided to throw up his commission. 
He returned to England, satisfied that the struggle, 
if not a vain, was an unjust one ; and that those 
who fought so vaUantly for independence deserved 
it. Whether in all its details this be strictly true 
or not, it is certain that the successful issue of the 
Revolution was as much due to the resolution and 
endurance of the patriots as to their active courage. 
The latter could only occasionally be called into 
exercise ; the former was necessary every day. It 
was a long struggle, and harder in its resistance 
against want and suffering, than in its battles with 
the enemy. 



LIFE OF MARION. 



151 



CHAPTER XII. 



Greene's Appreciation of Marion — Colonel Washington's Ruse — A 
quiet piece of Ordnance — Morgan's Brigade — Pursuit by Tarleton — 
Battle of the Cowpens— Anecdote of Tarleton — Anecdote of Conyers 
— Lee joins Marion — Attack on Georgetown — Capture of the Com- 
manding Officer — Partial Success of the Attack — Lee recalled by 
Greene — Movements of Cornwallis — Services of Marion's Brigade, in 
the Absence of the Regular Army. 




GENERAL GREENE brought to 
the South with him something that 
was of even more consequence to 
success than his own military expe- 
rience ; and that something was a just appre- 
ciation of the character and services of 
Marion, and of the efficiency of his force, 
and its proper disposal. On the very day 
after he assumed the command he wrote a letter to 
Marion, no less true than complimentary to that 
officer, in which he praised the efficiency and use- 
fulness of his course in Carolina, and begged him- 
to remain in his independent position, and to add 



152 LIFE OF MARION. 

to his other duties that of keeping the commander 
of the Southern army supplied with inteUigence. 
We need hardly say that Marion readily undertook 
this duty, and most skilfully performed it. His 
intelligence was of immense service to Greene, in 
his after operations; and demonstrated the utility 
of common sense in the General, who knew thus 
how to avail himself of most important assistance. 
Just as Greene assumed the command, there 
occurred as pleasant a piece of successful strategy 
as the history of the whole war affords. Lieutenant 
Colonel Washington, while detached in pursuit of 
a party of Tories, who eluded him by a timely 
retreat, happened to hear of another party posted 
at Rugcly's Farm, about thirteen miles from Cam- 
den. This force he determined to attack; but 
upon reaching the ground he found the party, 
under Colonel Rugely, strongly posted in a log 
barn, secured by abattis, and the ground inaccessi- 
ble to cavalry. Colonel Washington had neither 
infantry nor artillery, and the chase seemed after 
all about to prove but a bootless one. A happy 
expedient occurred to the American commander. 
He felled a pine tree, hewed out and blocked a most 
ferocious-looking field-piece; and mounting it on 
wagon-wheels, advanced with all proper and terrific 
parade, as if to batter down the stronghold. With- 



LIFE OF MARION. 153 

out stopping to enquire where a cavalry corps could 
have picked up a field-piece, Colonel Rugely decided 
to surrender at once, and save unnecessary blood- 
shed. And in this affair Colonel Washington made 
one hundred and twelve prisoners, without, it is 
scarcely necessary to remark, once discharging his 
field-piece, till the close of the surrender, when he 
discharged it — from further service. It had cer- 
tainly done wonders for such a piece of ordnance. 

This small affair was soon succeeded by a signal 
and important success in another direction. Greene 
made up for General Morgan an independent bri- 
gade, comprising about three hundred of the con- 
tinental line, Colonel Washing-ton's light dragoons, 
and tv/o companies of militia from Virginia ; and 
the brigade was farther supported by the militia 
under Colonel Pickens. The purpose of this de- 
tachment was to encourage the Whigs, and overawe 
the Tories west of the Catawba — to secure provi- 
sions, and to hold in check the foraging parties of 
the British, and narrow the enemy's tract of opera- 
tions. The main army, a mere skeleton, rested at 
Hicks's Creek. 

Cornwallis determined to attack the Americans 
wdiile thus divided, and defeat them in detail, before 
they could effect a junction. Reserving Greene for 
himself, the indefatigable Tarleton was sent to 



154 L I F E O F M A II I O N . 

take care of Morgan. Tarleton's force, his legion 
and some auxiliary infantry and artillery, amounted 
to about one thousand men. Morgan's strength was 
about eight hundred. 

Tarleton dashed on with his usual impetuosity ; 
and Morgan, being in an insecure position, crossed 
the Pacolet, intending to defend the fords. But 
Tarleton had already crossed that creek at another 
ford, six miles below; and Morgan, finding his 
pursuer on the same side of the river, retreated 
again to the Cowpens, where he made a stand, and, 
in opposition to the wishes of his officers, deter- 
mined to risk a battle. Tarleton reached his late 
camp on the evening of the same day that Morgan 
had vacated the ground. At three o'clock Tarleton, 
leaving his baggage under a guard, pushed on to 
surprise Morgan. But that officer was apprised of 
his approach, and ready to receive him. 

The disposition made by General Morgan of his 
troops was most judicious, and his presence of mind 
during the engagement was truly soldier-like. He 
availed himself even of apparent checks and disas- 
ters, and made them contribute to the victory. The 
militia were posted in front — those bodies of troops 
of whom least could be expected being farthest in 
advance. As it was presumed that such troops 
would not long withstand Tarleton's impetuous 



LIFE OF MARION. 155 

charge, they were ordered to keep up a retreating 
fire, and passing through intervals left for that pur- 
pose in the second line, to form again on its right. 
Tarleton, whose defeats and successes seem to have 
arisen from the same cause, over-confidence, was 
sure of an easy victory. His troops rushed for- 
ward, shouting as they moved ; and the American 
militia, after one well-directed fire, fell back — and 
again making a short stand, after a brief but warm 
conflict, retreated behind the second line, which was 
composed principally of continental troops. These 
veterans received Tarleton with great intrepidity; 
and he was compelled to order up his reserve, to 
strengthen the attack. At this critical moment a 
mistake was made, which had nearly proved fatal. 
A company, which was ordered to change its front 
to face the enemy, which was pressing on the flank, 
fell back, on account of mistaking the order. The 
rest of the line, supposing orders to have been given 
to change their ground, began to retire, but in per- 
fect order. General Morgan, perceiving the mis- 
take, confirmed the movement, and directed the 
retreat to be continued, till the infantry reached 
the place where Colonel Washington was posted 
with the reserve. The British, believing the fate 
of the battle decided, pressed on with ardour, and 
in some confusion, vv'hen suddenly the Americans 



156 LIFEOFMARION. 

halted, faced about, and poured a most deadly fire 
into the advancing enemy. The Americans fol- 
lowed up their fire with a bayonet charge, and the 
British line was broken. While this was going on 
with the infantry, Colonel Washington's light dra- 
goons had routed a body of the British horse; and 
Colonel Howard, who commanded the continental 
troops, followed up the advantage gained, with the 
aid of Colonel Washington, until the British artil- 
lery, and the greater part of the infantry, surren- 
dered. 

So siTddenly had this defeat taken place, that a 
portion of the British horse had not been brought 
into action, but were retreating unbroken. Colonel 
Washington pursued the retiring horse, and en- 
gaged them with great spirit. But they were supe- 
rior to his force in numbers, and made a gallant 
stand, until, Morgan coming up with his infantry, 
the retreat was resumed. In this eno^acrement the 
British lost over one hundred killed, including ten 
commissioned officers; and twenty-five commis- 
sioned officers and five privates were made prison- 
ers. Eight hundred muskets, two field-pieces, two 
standards, thirty-five baggage wagons, and one 
hundred, dragoon hoi*ses, were taken by the Ameri- 
cans. The American loss was between seventy 
and eighty, killed and wounded. It was a most 



LIPEOFMARION. 157 

important victory to the Americans, and would 
have been a decisive one if the Americans had 
been in force to follow up its advantages. But the 
whole Southern army did not exceed two thousand 
men, and they were divided into two bodies. Gene- 
ral Morgan was obliged to abandon the baggage 
which he had taken, in order that it should not 
impede his march. 

An amusing anecdote is related of Tarleton, in 
connexion with this affair. He was speaking, in a 
pubHc house, in rather contemptuous terms of an 
American officer who was in this engagement. 
*' For his part," he said, " he had heard very much 
of this man's prowess, but he could never get near 
enough to see him." " Perhaps," said a servant- 
girl pertly, " you might have had that pleasure, if 
you would have looked behind you, at the Cow- 
pens !" The girls at that day do not appear to have 
been deficient in the ability and spirit to make sharp 
answers. Another anecdote occurs to us which is 
worth relating. In Marion's brigade' there was a 
Captain Conyers, distinguished for bravery and 
excellent horsemanship, and, withal, a little vain 
of his accomplishments. It so chanced that Ma- 
rion had surrounded, or blockaded, a British party 
at a plantation where Mary Witherspoon, the 
betrothed of Conyers, and the daughter of another 



158 LIFE OF M A R 1 O >f . 

of Marion's officers, was residing. It may be 
inferred from her connexions what kind of a spirit 
such a girl would possess. Conyers, who was one 
of the investing party, would not lose the oppor- 
tunity of distinguishing himself in the sight of his 
mistress. He daily challenged the British posts, 
presenting himself sometimes alone, and sometimes 
at the head of a detachment ; and the girl's pride 
in her lover \vas deli<Thted at liearinn^ the warning 
cry, as slie frequently did — " Take care ! there 's 
Conyers !" One day a British officer, while Con- 
yers was capering in front of the lines, approached 
the maiden, and made some sneering remark about 
her lover. PuUing her shoe from her foot, she 
threw it in his face, and exclaimed, " Coward ! go 
out and meet him !" 

Previously to the date of the battle of the Cow- 
])ens, Marion had been joined by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Lee, at the head of his famous legion. Lee states 
in his memoirs, that to find the General with whom 
he was to co-operate was no very easy matter. An 
officer, who was sent on in advance with a small 
party to find Marion, did not discover his where- 
abouts until Marion's own men had made many 
hours' search for their commander. It was not our 
partisan's policy to remain long in a place ; for he 
was himself too much in the habit of surprising 



LIFE OF MARION. 159 

Others to permit his own safety to be endangered 
by consulting his ease. 

Marion had long and earnestly desired the aid 
of some regular troops of the continental army, in 
addition to his own forces. He was fortunate in 
the co-operation of Lee's brigade ; and the more so 
that Colonel Lee highly respected and admired him. 
Of this we have the evidence in the warm enco- 
miums upon the partisan General which Lee has 
left in his works. The plans of Greene looked to 
the intercepting of supplies sent from Charleston 
for the army of Cornwallis, and to the breaking up 
of the chain of posts which defended the great 
British line of communication. The capture of 
Georgetown, Marion's favourite scheme, harmo- 
nized with the purposes of General Greene ; and 
an attack was therefore determined upon. 

The plan was to take the post by surprise, at 
midnight. The troops were moved near the town, 
unperceived. At midnight the various bodies 
rushed into the town, according to the plan con- 
certed ; but as some of them were not in time to 
make the attack simultaneous, the enemy retained 
possession of the fort or citadel. The Americans 
had no ordnance to carry the defences ; and nothing 
was left them but to retreat, after having driven 
the British into their defences. Several of the 



160 LIFE OF MARION. 

British were killed, and among them one or two 
officers. One of the British officers, named Crook- 
shanks, was saved by his betrothed. He had rushed 
out into the piazza of the house in which he lodged, 
and discharged his pistol among the assailants. At 
the moment when their weapons were directed 
against him the young lady rushed into the fray, 
and throwing her arms round his neck, cried out, 
" O ! save IMajor Crookshanks !" Crookshanks sur- 
rendered himself a prisoner, and his parole was 
taken upon the spot; and the Americans pushed 
on to further surprises. 

Colonel Campbell, the commander of the post, 
•was taken prisoner in his bed, and admitted to 
parole. Had the fort at the first onset been carried 
by the bayonet, before the enemy had time to pre- 
pare themselves for resistance, the victory would 
have been signal and complete. As it was, the 
advantage was entirely upon the side of the Ameri- 
cans ; and the boldness of the attempt served far- 
ther to show the British what an indefatigable 
enemy they had to contend with. 

Marion did not wait in Georgetown or its neigh- 
bourhood for the enemy to rally and attack him ; 
and Lee fully coincided in his cautious policy. In- 
deed Marion's men, Horry tells us, while they 
rejoiced at the accession of strength which Lee 



LIFE OF MARION. 161 

brought in his cavalry, " the handsomest they had 
ever seen," rejoiced no less in the belief that Lee 
" in deep art and undaunted courage was a second 
Marion." But Lee and Marion were not long at 
this time to remain together. After the defeat of 
Tarleton by Morgan, Cornwallis pressed so hard 
upon the victors, with his superior army, that a 
retreat was necessary. Greene put himself at the 
head of Morgan's force, and called Lee to rejoin 
him, with his whole legion. 

As Lieutenant Tarleton made so large a figure 
in the partisan warfare of the South, we have 
thought it expedient to give the particulars of his 
great defeat at the Cowpens; but must despatch 
the further operations of Cornwallis and his officers 
in brief space. The movements of Greene and the 
British commander involved and exhibited much 
admirable military skill upon both sides ; and the 
behaviour of their respective armies was character- 
ized by every trait of active courage and patient 
endurance which make up the soldier's character. 
Greene, having an insufficient force, strove to keep 
the field without being compelled to hazard an en- 
gagement, while Cornwallis strove to bring on a 
battle, and laboured particularly to reach one body 
of Greene's force before a junction could be effected 

L 



162 LIFE OF MARION. 

with the others — and to strike a decisive blow 
while Greene was not yet reinforced by militia. 
At one time Cornwallis had complete command 
of North Carolina ; and even took the preliminary 
steps towards re-establishing the royal government. 
Greene retreated before Cornwallis into Virginia; 
but, as Cornwallis fell back into North Carolina, 
Greene returned. On the 15th of March, 1781, 
the battle of Guilford Court House took place. It 
was well contested, and gallantly fought upon both 
sides. The British were barely victors; but so 
hardly won was the small advantage, that Corn- 
wallis was in no condition to renew the attack. 
The British lost five hundred and thirty-two men, 
in killed and wounded, including several officers. 
The Americans had between four and five hun- 
dred killed and wounded, and many missing. Of 
the latter, however, most rejoined their corps 
afterwards, or, being militia, were found at their 
homes. 

After this action Lord Cornwallis fell back to 
Wilmington; Greene having recruited his force, 
and pursuing him. At this point Greene deter- 
mined, instead of engaging Cornwallis, to carry the 
war into South Carolina again, and thus compel 
the British commander either to lose the advan- 



LIFE OF MARION. 163 

tages held in South Carohna and Georgia, or to 
follow the Americans and liberate South Carolina. 
But Cornwallis took an unexpected, and as it re- 
sulted a fatal course for him. Instead of foUowins: 
Greene, he pushed on to Virginia, and ended his 
career in America on the 19th of October foUowiniz, 
by surrendering to the combined American and 
French forces at Yorktown. 

During the movements between Greene and 
Cornwallis which we have been speaking of, Ma- 
rion and his men were busy indeed in South 
Carolina. Lord Rawdon was left in command of 
the British and loyalist forces there, and found it 
a very troublesome command. It w^as not that 
Marion and the other partisans were in sufficient 
force to create serious alarm ; but they did cause 
to the British extreme inconvenience. Not a de- 
tachment could move except in large force ; not a 
baggage-wagon could proceed without a convoy. 
Several of the smaller posts and military depots 
were surprised, and the stores destroyed ; trains of 
baggage w^ere seized or burnt — parties were fre- 
quently captured ; and dismay was carried into the 
Tory settlements. The line of communication be- 
tween Charleston and the army of Cornwallis was 
broken up ; and the British were so shut up in 



164 LIFE OF MARION. 

their strongholds, that it became absolutely neces- 
sary that they should " catch Mr. Marion." This 
was an experiment which, our readers remember, 
had been tried before, without very flattering suc- 
cess. The history of the adventures of the detach- 
ments sent by Lord Rawdon in pursuit of the 
"swamp fox," we will leave to another chapter. 



LIFE OF MARION. 165 



CHAPTER XIII. 

I 

Detachments in pursuit of Marion — Colonel Tynes — Unfortunate Con- 
dition of Horry's Men — Pursuit of McIIraith — Challenge to an 
Engagement by Champions — McIIraith Recedes from the Pro- 
posal, and retreats — Marion draws off his Men, and McIIraith 
Escapes — Encounter with Watson on the Santee — Brave Exploit of 
Gavin James — Affair at Mount Hope — Encounter on the Williams- 
burg Road — Watson's Message to Marion — McDonald's Sharp- 
Shooting — His Message to Watson — Watson blockaded at Blake- 
ley's — He escapes to Georgetown. 



WO British parties were despatched 
in pursuit of Marion. Each com- 
prised a regiment of British soldiers, 
with an auxiliary force of loyalists. 
One party was commanded by Colonel Wat- 
son, and the other by Colonel Doyle. Their 
first purpose was the capture of Marion ; and 
a second, and hardly less important, the break- 
ing up of his stronghold on Snow's Island. Of 
Watson's movements Marion was well advised. 
He had a chain of scouts in the Whig young men, 
who kept him apprised of the important movements 




IGG LIFEOF MARION. 

of the enemy ; but by some means Doyle's progress 
was not known to the Whigs. The two British 
detachments were to form a junction on the Pedee 
River. Watson's movements were made with a 
great deal of caution ; and so indeed were Doyle's. 
Both knew the crafty character of the man of whom, 
they were in pursuit. 

Marion was sensible that his force was insuffi- 
cient to cope in open fight with the enemy ; and 
bein^ well instructed as to Watson's movements in 
particular, he kept his men actively employed in 
the sudden surprises and quick marches which so 
annoyed the enemy. There was a famous loyalist 
colonel named Tynes, of whose defeat and capture 
we have in a previous chapter informed the reader. 
He was sent to North Carolina for safe-keeping; 
but made his escape from jail, not improbably by 
the connivance of the jailor, and appeared again in 
South Carolina, at the head of a second party. 
Again Marion defeated him, capturing the whole 
party, with its leader. Colonel Tynes was a second 
time sent to the North state as a prisoner. Incredi- 
ble as it may seem, with an indefatigability worthy 
of a better cause, he made his appearance a third 
time in South Carolina, with a larger force than 
ever. There would appear to have been, from some 
cause or other, great facilities of escape ; for Tynes 



LIFE OF MARION. 167 

was not the only man whom Marion fought two or 
three times over; and some presented themselves 
even oftener than that, to be met and captured. 

Horry, with forty of the best horsemen in Ma- 
rion's command, was sent to deal a third time with 
this constantly re-appearing enemy. All went as 
well as the gallant partisan could wish. Riding 
hard all night, and until noon the next day, the 
party reached the house of a man, who, Weems 
says, was truly " a publican and a sinner," — for he 
was a great Tory. Horry took the liberty to put 
his host under guard, for fear that he might convey 
intelligence to the enemy; and, by way of after 
dinner amusement, busied himself with extracting 
information from his prisoner. The wife, who 
seems to have been such an adept in artifice that 
Horry would have done well to put her under 
guard too, was meanwhile securing the failure of 
Horry's plans, with a very seductive and potent 
ally. She not only gave the men as much apple- 
brandy as they could drink, but very obligingly 
filled their bottles and canteens. 

As Marion's men never started on an expedition 
without well understanding the ground, and the 
nature of their chances, Horry, after his men were 
refreshed and rested, started off in high glee, sure 
of making Colonel Tynes a prisoner for the third 



168 LIFE OF MARION. 

time. But he soon began to perceive that the men 
were in much greater spirits than there was any 
particular warrant for; and their canteens visited 
their mouths much oftener than, if the contents 
had been only water, as usual, there would have 
been any temptation for. 

To the enquiry what they were drinking, the 
troop answered, "water, only water;" but Horry, 
to his great mortification, found that some of them 
with much difficulty kept their seats. Their com- 
mander, upon endeavouring to expostulate with 
them, received precisely such answers as were to 
be expected from drunken men, and drew off in 
despair. To have persevered in the attack, with 
soldiers in that condition, would have been to lead 
them to certain death ; to remain where they were 
until the men were recovered, would have been 
almost as bad, for the whole district through which 
they were riding was thoroughly Tory; and no 
choice was left but to order a retreat. Even this 
was accomplished in a scandalously noisy and 
unsoldier-like manner. Each trooper in his corps 
fancied himself a general, and ordered his comrades 
about ; and such was the noise and hallooing, that 
the next morning Tynes, having waited all night 
for an attack, despatched a patrol up the road to 
see what was the matter. The patrol found some 



LIFE OF MAUION. 169 

of the plumes which the drunken rogues had lost, 
and setting up the cry, " Marion ! Marion !" every 
step was taken to guard against surprise. Marion 
received Horry's report with his usual equanimity, 
but cautioned him to watch the "fire water" in 
future. A few days afterward Marion captured a 
good part of Tynes's command; and the unfor- 
tunate Colonel does not appear to have figured on 
the scene any more. But for the shameful inebria- 
tion of Horry's men, Tynes would most probably 
have found his way to a more secure imprisonment 
than his two former ones. This affair very much 
chagrined Horry ; and we preserve the account of 
it principally as one of the thousand proofs of the 
uselessness of alcoholic couras^e. 

In the month of February, Marion heard of the 
approach of a British officer. Major Mcllraith, with 
a force fully equal to his own ; and immediately the 
proper measures were taken to meet this enemy, 
or, rather, to change the defensive attitude from 
himself to his enemy. Mcllraith, in all accounts, 
is represented as a loyal officer, of more humane 
and noble character than the greater part of those 
who figured in the contest in South Carolina. He 
burned no houses on his march, and hanged no 
prisoners; nay, he even paid for such refreshments 
as his troops needed. Marion overtook him at sun- 



1 70 L I F E O F M A R I O N . 

set, and his advance instantly had a brush with the 
enemy. The action was then suspended, to be 
renewed in the morning ; but Mcllraith did not 
wait. On the next day, Marion pushed on in pur- 
suit. At the house of a well-known Whig lady, 
Marion heard most eulogistic accounts of the hu- 
manity of Mcllraith, and found also a surgeon in 
charge of a number of wounded men, part of whom 
were British, and the rest Americans, badly hurt, 
who had fallen into the hands of the British. 

Marion pushed on in pursuit, but said that he 
felt very much as if he were hunting a brother. 
Such commanders as Mcllraith, and such a policy 
as he pursued toward the Americans, would have 
been much more efficient than the barbarous policy 
which had liitherto brought only odium upon the royal 
cause. The retreating British were overtaken on the 
road, but after a sharp skirmish in a place every way 
eligible for the swamp tactics of Marion, Mcllraith, 
by hard fighting, managed to reach an open field, 
where he encamped. Marion pitched his tents 
near him, and here flags were exchanged. Mcll- 
raith complained of Marion's mode of warfare, and 
challenged him to a fair fight in the open field. 
Marion perceived readily that this was but the 
challenge of a man who, finding himself in a des- 
perate predicament, wished the other party to forfeit 



LIFEOF MARION. 171 

his advantages ; but replied that if Major Mcllraith 
wished to see a combat between twenty champions 
on each side, he was not iinwilhng to gratify him. 
This was agreed to, and pleased Marion's men 
exceedingly, from the dash of romance and adven- 
ture in it. The twenty men from the American 
side advanced ; then twenty opponents were drawn 
up in line to receive them ; and both armies were 
looking on with intense interest, when Mcllraith 
suddenly recalled his men, who retreated to the 
main body. The American party at this movement 
raised a shout of triumph, but did not fire a shot, 
and returned also. Thus the affair finished. Had 
it been persisted in, there is little doubt that the 
American sharp-shooters would have killed the 
greater part of their opponents at the first fire; 
and the rest would have been easily managed. 

Marion and his men were very leniently disposed 
toward Mcllraith. The manner of his march, and. 
the evidence of humane feelings which he had 
given, disinclined them from pursuing him with 
the bitter hostility which usually marked the par- 
tisan warfare of the South. Duringf the niofht 
Mcllraith abandoned his heavy baggage, and, leav- 
ing his camp-fires burning, retreated. Marion, 
when he discovered the fact, sent a party forward 
1o get in advance of Mcllraith before he should 



172 r I K E O F MARION. 

reach Singleton's Mills, which commanded a defile 
through which Mcllraith must pass. On reaching 
the Mills, Marion's men found the small-pox there, 
and were disinclined to avail themselves of such a 
dangerous post. Before they returned, however, 
one of the men shot the officer who led the British 
advance. Marion was grieved that this took place, 
and withdrew his soldiers from the pursuit; willing 
that the British party should reach Charleston in 
safety. 

And now commenced the series of encounters 
with Watson — a British officer who had, more than 
any other, bitter experience of the character of 
Marion as an antagonist. About the first of March 
Watson left the fort which he had made his ren- 
dezvous, and was proceeding down the Santee 
River. Marion, who liked to choose his own 
ground for encountering an enemy, made one of 
those forced marches for which he was so remark- 
able, and suddenly attacked Watson in a swamp 
about midway between Nelson's and Murray's fer- 
ries. At first the advantage was with the enemy. 
The first encounter made the advance of each party 
recoil. Marion then gave the word to charge, and 
for a little while the Americans held their own; 
but Watson's regulars with their field-pieces again 
compelled the Americans to recede. The Tory 



LIFE OF MARION. 173 

horse under Harrison pressed the advantage; but 
just at this moment individual courage saved the 
day. Gavin James, one of the boldest and most 
expert of Marion's men, actually checked the whole 
British column ! 

James w^as a giant in size, and rode a grey horse, 
as remarkable for length and strength of limb as 
his master. He threw himself in front of his com- 
rades, and facing the enemy as if he was perfectly 
invulnerable, and feared no shots, he took deliberate 
aim and killed his man. A volley from the British 
answered his single fire, but not a shot took effect 
on the giant. A dragoon then rushed upon him, 
but James killed him with his bayonet. A second 
came up, and was also stricken down ; but, as in 
his fall he clung to James's musket, the American 
was compelled to fall back, and drew the wounded 
soldier w^ith him for some distance. This stirring 
adventure gave the Americans time to rally ; and 
captains Macauley and Conyers, at the head of the 
American cavalry, drove the Tories back. Harrison 
himself fell by the hand of Conyers ; and the Bri- 
tish horse, completely broken, retreated, and took 
shelter behind the infantry. Marion did not deem 
it advisable to make any permanent stand here, 
but, having given the enemy check enough to cure 
them of any ardent disposition for immediate pur- 



174 LIFE OF MARION. 

suit, retreated a few miles below ; and Watson 
encamped that night on the field of battle. The 
effect of this affair was to put the Americans in 
high spirits, and to give the Tories sad premonitions 
of what they were to expect. 

The next morning the pursuit was resumed, if 
pursuit it could be called, in which the pursuers 
could find the pursued only by the attacks which 
they received from an antagonist who did not wait 
to be overtaken by his enemy. At every step Wat- 
son's command was subjected to sudden attacks; 
while Marion, with the main body, kept just far 
enough ahead to be out of reach while he broke 
up bridges, and to have time and opportunity to 
post ambuscades. At Mount Hope Watson had 
bridges to repair, while his men were exposed to a 
murderous fire from Horry's men, wdio were con- 
cealed in a thicket. But the British commander 
brought up his field-pieces, and by drilling the 
swamps through and through with grape-shot, he 
succeeded in dislodging his formidable enemy. 

This danger passed, Watson made a feint, as if 
he was about to change the direction of his march. 
The pursuer and pursued were, in fact, changing 
positions. But Marion was too old a bush-fighter 
to be deceived by any evolution of this kind ; and 
when Watson arrived at the bridge on the main 



LIFE OF MARION. 175 

road to Williamsburg, across the Black River, he 
found two of the middle arches thrown down, and 
the bridge fired at each end. There was a fording 
place below the bridge, and the approach to it lay 
through a ravine. Watson's field-pieces opened the 
path ; but his force had scarcely entered it, when 
they found that it was almost literally a death pas- 
sage. The leader of the British advance was slain, 
and the whole body dispersed and driven back. Not 
a man could approach the spot. An effort was 
made to continue the play of the field-pieces upon 
Marion's men ; but, to command the position where 
the main body of the American troops were posted, 
required the pieces to be drawn up on the high 
ground which formed one side of the ravine. To 
send them there, was to offer them as sure marks 
to the American rifles. Not a man approached 
within reach of the fire of these unerring marks- 
men, who did not fall dead or wounded. Marion's 
force was so skilfully posted on both sides of the 
river, that his men were comparatively safe. The 
British could advance to attack no one point, with- 
out being subjected to a galling fire from all others. 
To force the pass under such circumstances was an 
impossibihty ; and Watson's men were fain, like 
Marion's, to take the shelter of the thickets, and 
skirmish as opportunity offered, until nightfall. 



176 LIFE OF MARION. 

Watson was dismayed at the character of his 
enemy. He declared that he never saw such shoot- 
ing in his Hfe. In his despatches for reinforce- 
ments, which were intercepted, and fell into the 
hands of Marion, he made most woful complaints, 
as well he might, of the manner in which he was 
harassed. He sent a flag to Marion, by which he 
beffored him to come out and " fiorht like a Chris- 
tian." "Why," he said, "you must command a 
horde of savages, who delight in nothing but mur- 
der. I can't cross a swamp or a bridge but I am 
waylaid, and shot at, like a mad dog !" Talking 
about "honour" and rules of warfare to men who 
foujjht with halters about their necks was rather 
out of place. The British officers seem to have 
desired that the partisan should be willing to con- 
sider himself a soldier bound by fantastical rules, 
until taken. The process of capture changed their 
character into rebels, and they were then expected 
to submit to hanging without complaint. It is said 
that Marion answered the officer who came to him 
with Watson's flag that, " from what he had known 
of them, the British officers were the last men on 
earth who should talk to others about honour and 
humanity. That for men who came three thousand 
miles to burn the houses of innocent people, plun- 
der and hang their prisoners, to undertake to tell 



LIFE OF MARION. 177 

that people how they should fight, was an addition 
of impertinent insult which he was unprepared to 
expect. And he concluded by warning the officer 
that he considered it his duty to rid the country of 
such invaders, as he would of wolves and panthers!" 
During this day Macdonald, of whose feats we 
have before spoken, was employed in reconnoitre- 
ing. He performed this duty in the usual daring 
method which the partisan scouts delighted to prac- 
tise ; and when ready to return, could not persuade 
himself to do it till he had signalized the day's 
work by some deed which should cause him to be 
remembered. Knowing the path which the British 
guard would take to relieve their sentinels, he placed 
himself in a bushy tree which commanded the route, 
and, having his gun loaded with pistol-bullets, fired 
upon the party as it passed. The discharge killed 
one man, and badly wounded Lieutenant Torriano, 
The guard, supposing of course that they had fallen 
into an ambuscade, made the best of their way out, 
with their killed and wounded ; and Macdonald 
returned in safety to the American camp. Such 
an act as this of Macdonald's could, however, be 
excused only from the peculiar character of the 
warfare in which he was ensajTed ; and the mind 
of the reader now revolts from giving: it the unal- 
loyed praise which it seems to have received from 

M 



178 LIFE OF MARION. 

the contemporaries of the daring Serjeant Mac- 
donald. 

On the day following, another flag came to Ma- 
rion from Watson, requesting a passport for Lieu- 
tenant Torriano, the wounded officer, to Charleston. 
This Marion readily granted. By the same flag 
which carried back Torriano's passport, Serjeant 
Macdonald sent a curious message to Watson. It 
appears that the Serjeant, in the hurried move- 
ments of the last few days, had left his knapsack 
and entire wardrobe where it fell into the hands of 
the enemy. Macdonald, in his message to Colonel 
Watson, informed him that unless his wardrobe 
was returned to him he should, in retaliation, kill 
eight of his men ! Colonel Watson was disposed 
to treat the message with contempt ; but the recent 
disaster of his lieutenant by the hands of the Ser- 
jeant, and the representations of his officers that 
from the daring character of the man he wo aid 
certainly keep his word, induced the British com- 
mander to comply with the request. When the 
clothes appeared, Macdonald, to amuse himself still 
further with the irritation of the British officer, 
'directed the bearer to say to Colonel Watson, 
" Now I will only kill four." 

Effectually baffled, finding it impossible to cross 
llie river, and discovering that any position was 



LIFE OF MARION. 179 

unsafe which was in the vicinity of a clump of trees 
capable of sheltering a single sharp-shooter, Watson 
encamped at last in the middle of the most open 
field he could find. Here for ten days he was abso- 
lutely besieged and shut in by the General whom 
he had been despatched to catch. His encampment 
was on Blakely's plantation. To add to his dis- 
comfort, the cavalry of Marion were continually 
dashing up to his very lines, as if to make an 
assault at once ; and it was a hazardous experiment 
for a man to expose himself to Marion's rifles, which 
seemed, by a sort of ubiquity, to command him on 
every side. Tantalized by an enemy whom they 
could not reach — harassed day and night ; his sup- 
plies cut off — all intelligence intercepted ; and his 
men daily diminishing in the unremitting skir- 
mishing which Marion forced upon him at all 
hours, he was forced at last to decamp. He was 
completely out-generalled. To stay was death ; to 
move was danger. 

He moved off silently in the night, and took the 
road toward Georgetown. He was harassed at 
every step of the march by light parties of the 
Americans; and when he reached Ox Swamp, found 
them posted in force to receive and give him battle. 
To attempt to pass on a route thus guarded would 
have been madness ; and Watson suddenly changed 



180 LIFE OF MARION. 

his direction, and reached the San tee road by a 
forced march. By this movement, executed with 
a great deal of rapidity, he left Marion's force a 
good distance behind ; and when Marion overtook 
him, he found him in full flight, his infantry abso- 
lutely running. Still they preserved their disci- 
pline, and occasionally wheeled and saluted their 
pursuers with a lire, which, however, did but little 
injury. 

The great object was to gain Sampit Bridge, 
Here Marion had, however, placed a party in 
advance; and it was the cowardice of one man 
which saved Watson's detachment. A certain Lieu- 
tenant Scott had been posted wdth a command of 
rifles in ambush, to fire upon the British as they 
crossed the ford. Had he done his duty, their de- 
struction would have been complete. But he was 
afraid of being surrounded and cut to pieces — and 
withheld the fire of his men. Marion, with the 
main body, overtook Watson at the ford, and com- 
menced a furious attack on his rear, which was 
short, sharp, and bloody. Watson lost his horse, 
and barely escaped himself Twenty of his men 
were killed, and a large number wounded. 

He succeeded, however, in getting over, and 
pushed on to Georgetown, thoroughly harassed and 
spirit-broken by soldiers who " would not fight like 



LIFE OF MARION. 181 

gentlemen!" Had lieutenant Scott obeyed the 
orders of Horry, under whose immediate command 
he was, Colonel Watson would not only have been 
baffled and driven back by Marion, but his detach- 
ment would have been entirely cut to pieces, and 
he would himself have been killed or taken. He 
escaped this affair to have more experience of the 
tactics of the ablest partisan general in the South. 



182 LIFE U F M A K I O N . 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Capture of Marion's Stronghold — Retreat of Colonel Doyle — Marion 
seeks Watson — Good news to ihe Whigs — Retreat of Watson — Bat- 
tle of Camden — Fall of Fort Motte — A Heroic Lady — Hanging of 
Prisoners — British Evacuation of Georgetown — Abandonment of 
Seventy-Six — Daring Movements of the Partisans — Battle of Jumby 
— Rescue of Colonel Harden — Defeat of Major Frazier — Battle erf" 
Eutaw. 



IHILE Marion had been so busily 
engaged with Watson, his force was 
not sufficient property to defend his 
i'^J''^ encampment on Snow's Island : and 

Colonel Doyle succeeded in penetrating to 
that famous retreat; mastering the small 
force there garrisoned, and destroying the 
stores — not large in quantity, but the more 
valuable for their scarceness. Marion instantly 
determined upon the pursuit of Doyle; but that 
officer did not wait for the annoyance which Marion 
had inflicted upon Watson. He retreated at once, 
after a slight encounter with Marion, toward 
Camden. 




LIFE OF MARION. 183 

Watson, stung with his defeat, soon saUied out 
from Georgetown, with a reinforcement, and farther 
strengthened himself with a large body of Tories. 
Beside the commands of Watson and Doyle, there 
was still another party in pursuit of Marion. His 
prospects were never darker ; but he was deter- 
mined, in the worst event, to retreat to the moun- 
tains, and still keep the field ; and in this resolution 
his men seconded him, and pledged him their sup- 
port. At this moment, it must be recollected, 
Marion's was the only American force in the field. 

Finding Doyle too quick in his retreat to be over- 
taken, Marion wheeled, and sought another brush 
with Watson. He encamped within five miles of 
the British force, at Warhees, in what is now called 
Marion County. Watson, though his force was 
double that of Marion, did not seek an engagement ; 
nor could Marion exhibit much activity, as his 
ammunition would not hold out two rounds to a 
man. In this posture of affairs, Marion received 
the agreeable intelligence that Greene was advanc- 
ing again into South Carolina, and that Lee was 
returning to join him with his legion. Watson was 
no less interested than Marion in these events ; and 
started off to join Lord Rawdon, at Camden, by a 
route the tortuous indirectness of which would have 
done honour to the " swamp fox" himself Watson 



184 LIFE OF MARION. 

had no inclination to be overtaken or waylaid, and 
escaped — burning his baggage, and wheeling his 
artillery into a creek, that it might not impede his 
flight. Marion was persuaded by Lee, who had 
now joined him, not to pursue; and much against 
his will, consented to refrain. 

The conjoined force of Marion and Lee next 
attacked Fort Watson — which was situated on 
Scott's Lake, near the junction of the Congaree 
and Wateree rivers. It was a stockade fort, gar- 
risoned by about one hundred and twenty men. It 
had great advantages of position, being built upon 
a high mound, but no artillery was mounted in it. 
Nor were its besiegers any better provided in this 
particular, as they had not so much as a field-piece. 
To storm the place was out of the question ; and 
to reduce it by blockade was a dilatory process, lia- 
ble to be interrupted by the arrival of relief A 
happy expedient, after eight days' delay, occurred 
to the besiegers. They emulated the ancient war- 
riors, by building an overlooking tower. Felling a 
wood in the night, and piling the logs in alternate 
layers, the besiegers astonished the besieged in the 
morning by raining down upon them a shower of 
rifle-balls, against which their over-topped defences 
aflbrded no shelter. Under cover of this fire, a 
party of assailants, composed of volunteers from 



LIFE OP MARION. 185 

the militia, and from Lee's continentals, ascended 
the mound, and proceeded to destroy the abattis. 
This movement brought the besieged to terms, and 
the garrison capitulated. 

Other successes attended parties of Marion's 
men in different directions ; but the despatch of 
detachments made his own immediate force small. 
He was thus prevented from intercepting Watson, 
as he might have done had he been in force, before 
he reached Camden ; for, as we have already stated, 
Watson took a course which, while it eluded pur- 
suit, trebled his journey. The appearance of Marion 
in the vicinity of Camden brought on a battle be- 
tween the two armies, commanded by Greene and 
Rawdon. It was not decisive, for, though Rawdon 
kept the field, Greene lost nothing more than his 
antagonist, except the nominal victory. 

The next action of importance in which Marion 
was engaged, was in the reduction of Fort Motte. 
This was an important depot on the route from 
Charleston to Camden, and was a mansion-house 
belonging to Mrs. Motte, appropriated by the Bri- 
tish, and surrounded with defences. It had a gar- 
rison of about two hundred men. On the 20th of 
May, Marion summoned it to surrender; and the 
British commander. Colonel McPherson, declared 
his determination to stand a siege. He was the 



186 LIFE OF MARION. 

more encouraged to do this, as Lord Rawdon, hav- 
ing abandoned and fired Camden, was advancing 
to the relief of the fort. Nay, his fires at night, as 
he encamped, were discerned. Marion saw that 
there was no time for battering down the defences 
with his single six-pounder. He resorted to the 
expedient of firing the house. To the immortal 
honour of the lady who owned it, Mrs. Motte, it is 
related that she not only cheerfully assented to the 
destruction of her house, but furnished the imple- 
ments, a bow and arrows, with which it was effected. 
They were shot at the roof, with combustibles at- 
tached, and the building was fired in three places. 
McPherson sent parties to the roof to stay the 
flames ; but these were soon driven down by Ma- 
rion's six-pounder, and the garrison begged for 
quarter, which was acceded to them. In this siege 
Marion lost two valuable oflicers, lieutenants Con- 
yersand Macdonald. The gallant serjeant had been 
promoted to a lieutenancy. 

Mrs. Motte gave, on the day after the capitula- 
tion, a sumptuous dinner to the officers of both 
armies. While seated at the table, Marion was 
horror-stricken by the intelligence that some of the 
Americans were hanging Tory prisoners. The 
news was not communicated aloud ; but Marion's 
officers, seeing him snatch his s\\'ord and leave the 



LIFE OF MARION. 187 

table, followed him in all haste, and were horror- 
struck to find a poor wretch hanging apparently in 
the last agonies. Their timely arrival saved his 
life ; but two were hanged past recovery. With an 
indignation which words could hardly express, Ma- 
rion put a stop to this horrid barbarity, threatening 
to kill the next man who attempted it ; and placed 
a strong guard over the Tory prisoners for their 
protection. To such a terrible pitch had partisan 
warfare wrought the animosity of the combatants, 
that it is scarcely to be wondered that these men, 
obnoxious and well known as they had been for 
their cruelty to Whig prisoners, should meet such 
fearful retribution. It is fearful even to think of 
the brutalizing effects of civil war. 

While Marion was, with Lee, reducing forts 
Watson and Motte, Sumpter had returned similar 
accounts of the British posts at Orangeburg and 
Granby. These losses induced the abandonment 
of Camden by the British. General Greene, after 
Lord Raw^don left Camden, proceeded against the 
post of Seventy-Six, at the village of Cambridge. 
Marion meanwhile undertook to invest Georgetown, 
and appeared before that place on the 6th of June. 
The besieged did not wait to be pushed to extremi- 
ties, but abandoned the post; retreating first to their 
galleys, and then left the harbour altogether. Ma- 



188 LIFE OF MARION. 

rion demolished the British works, and removed the 
stores and pubUc property, a most seasonable cap- 
ture, to a place of security up the river. Thus was 
this long-cherished desire of Marion's accomplished ; 
and, as if in honour of the occasion, he treated 
himself to a suit of regimentals and camp equipage 
— an indulgence which formed an era in the life of 
our self-denying partisan. 

The abandonment of Seventy-Six by the British 
was the next important event. Lord Rawdon, with 
a strong force of new troops, which had just reached 
Charleston, forced Greene to abandon the siege ; and 
this point of military honour achieved, himself re- 
linquished the post, and fell back with its garrison 
to Orangeburg. This was a bitter event for the 
Tories who had rested under the shadow and pro- 
tection of this post, as they were compelled to aban- 
don their homes, and follow the retreating army. 
Adverse events now crowded upon the British. 
They were too strongly posted at Orangeburg to 
be attacked there ; and Greene ordered Marion and 
his famous compatriots to drive in the enemy from 
their smaller stations. So effectually was this task 
performed, that the British rule was for a brief time 
swept away to the very gates of Charleston. Au- 
gusta had been recovered by the Americans under 



LIFE OF MARION. 189 

Pickens aad Lee, and the enemy were now becom- 
ing dail)^ more and more straitened. 

The British had so long considered Charleston as 
permanently theirs, that they were dismayed to find 
the Americans seizing the posts almost within hail 
of the city. Colonel Wade Hampton even dashed 
within the city lines, and captured the guard and 
patrol at the Quarter House. Marion and Sumter 
moved against Colonel Coates, who was posted at 
Biggin's Creek, one of the streams which empty 
into Cooper River ; and active generalship was put 
in requisition to defend, on the British side, and on 
the other to attempt to destroy, the bridge over 
"Watboo Creek, another of the streams which run 
into the Cooper. Colonel Horry undertook this 
work on the 16th of July, and had nearly suc- 
ceeded, having once driven off the guard, when the 
enemy re-appeared in force, and drove him back. 
But while the enemy made a feint of preparing 
for battle, at midnight setting fire to their stores, 
they moved off silently toward Charleston. Marion's 
cavalry had now arrived, and the British were over- 
taken at Quinby Creek. The main body of the 
army had passed over the bridge, and every pre- 
paration was made for its destruction, as soon as the 
rear guard with the baggage should have passed. 



190 LIPEOF MARION. 

Marion and Lee's cavalry charged upon the guard 
so furiously, that they surrendered without firing a 
gun. The Americans rushed on to the bridge. A 
howitzer was stationed at the other end, and the 
presence of the British soldiers, who were on the 
bridge in the work of demolition, alone stayed its 
fire. A portion of the cavalry dashed over, and 
secured the gun. But the British were recovering 
themselves in front ; a portion of the American 
force had halted ; the brave fellows who had seized 
the gun were unsupported, and finding it madness 
to remain, they abandoned their position. Had the 
whole American force followed their example, and 
pushed over the bridge, the British, so crowded 
were they, must have yielded. Colonel Coates, 
after destroying the bridge, fell back upon a neigh- 
bouring plantation, where he could have the shelter 
of the buildings, and be secure against the despe- 
rate charges of the American cavalry. 

Sumter, with the main body of the American 
army, reached the ground in the afternoon; and 
that impetuous officer, against the advice of Marion, 
determined upon an attack on Colonel Coates in his 
strong position. Unfortunately, in the eagerness 
of his march, Sumter had left his field-piece behind. 
The American soldiers behaved with great gal- 



LIFE OF MARION. 191 

lantry, — Marion's brigade particularly, of whom 
more than fifty were killed or wounded. After an 
enoraffement of four hours' duration, the Americans 
were compelled to cease for want of ammunition ; 
and as tidings were received of the approach of 
Lord Rawdon, the Americans deemed it prudent to 
retreat beyond the Santee. Though accomplishing 
no positive victory in this affair, the American 
troops did themselves high honour ; the South 
Carolina militia particularly, under command of 
favourite leaders, behaving like veterans. 

It was now midsummer, and for more than a 
month few operations of any importance took place 
in the movements of the troops. To this period in 
the history of the war belongs the account of the 
execution of Colonel Hayne, which we have given 
in a preceding chapter. We refer to it now only to 
say that its occurrence, striking horror to the hearts 
of the British as well as American officers, put a 
stop to such proceedings thereafter. The Ameri- 
cans had become something more than rebels, and 
the tone of the British was becoming more respect- 
ful and conciliatory. 

This summer was performed one of the most 
memorable feats of Marion. Several detachments 
of the American troops were occupied in various 



192 LIFE OF MARION. 

parts of the state, in checking the foraging opera- 
tions of the British, and in providing supphes for 
the American army. One of these parties, com- 
posed of mounted mihtia, was upon the Edisto, 
under command of Colonel Harden. Marion learned 
that he was closely pressed by a British party of five 
hundred men, and determined to attempt his relief. 
With a party of two hundred picked men, our in- 
defatigable partisan stole across the country — pass- 
ing two of the enemy's lines of communication — a 
distance of one hundred miles. Before the enemy 
suspected his approach or presence, he decoyed 
them into an ambush ; they supposing his men 
were Harden's, of whom they were in pursuit. The 
British, commanded by Major Frazier, were sadly 
cut to pieces, and would probably have been com- 
pletely defeated, but for the failure of ammunition. 
Colonel Harden thus relieved, Marion returned in 
safety by the same route ; and after his return per- 
formed several circuitous and troublesome marches 
before he was finally posted, in advance of General 
Greene. All this occupied only about six days. 
Congress passed a series of resolutions, thanking 
Marion and his men for the gallant achievement ; 
and by these resolutions we learn that the affair of 
Parker's Ferry, in which Frazier was so roughly 
handled, occurred on the 31st of August. 



LIFE OF MARION. 193 

On the 8th of September, 1781, the battle of 
Eutaw Springs took place — the engagement which 
effectually crippled the British power in the South. 
The British were under command of General 
Stewart, Lord Rawdon having left Charleston. 
They were strongly posted, and so little apprehen- 
sive of an attack, that a party of a hundred men 
were sent out, unarmed, to gather sweet potatoes 
on the very line of Greene's advance. Discovering 
their danger, Stewart despatched a party of cavalry 
to protect and recall them. Colonel Coffin, who com- 
manded this party, met the American advance, and, 
mistaking its strength, charged boldly. He was 
easily repulsed, and the foraging party were all 
made prisoners. 

The Americans also made a mistake. While 
Coffin had charged, supposing he was attacking a 
small body, he did it with such confidence that the 
Americans imagined they were encountered by the 
British advance, and immediately formed in order 
of battle. Moving forward steadily, they drove on 
the British advance parties until the main body, 
displayed in order, and waiting to receive the 
Americans, sheltered the fugitives. The American 
militia went into the engagement with a steadiness 
and courage which would have done honour to any 

N 



194 LIFE OF MARION. 

soldiers in the world. At length a portion of the 
troops recoiled, from the heavy fire to which in 
their position they were peculiarly exposed. The 
British hurried forward, sure of victory. The 
advantage of their broken line was seized — the 
Maryland militia were ordered to charge with the 
bayonet, and obeyed with a shout. A destructive 
fire was at the same time poured in, both from the 
front and on the flank ; the enemy broke and fled, 
and the Americans with shouts of victory pressed 
forward. 

But a party of the British had thrown themselves 
into a brick dwelling and its offices, whence it 
was necessary to dislodge them ere the victory was 
complete ; and Major Majoribanks, a British officer 
of great courage and coolness, still held a whole 
battalion in reserve in the thick woods on Eutaw 
Creek. He had twice repulsed a charge of the 
American cavalry under Colonel Washington, and 
made that officer prisoner. The victorious Ameri- 
cans now rushed forward with such impetuosity 
that the British had absolutely to close the doors 
of the house before mentioned upon friends and 
foes, who were pushing in together. Majoribanks 
was on the point of being cut to pieces or captured, 
with his battalion, when an unfortunate circum- 



LIFE OF MARION. 195 

stance reversed the day. The Americans pursued 
the enemy directly through the abandoned camp. 
Refreshments were strewed about in abundance, 
and the hungry victors dalhed to enter the tents 
and partake. The British saw the error, and ral- 
lied. The muskets in the house commanded the 
encampment; and the American soldiers were abso- 
lutely entrapped in the enemy's tents. Every head 
which protruded from under the canvass was the 
mark for a shower of bullets. Majoribanks now 
issued from the thicket, and his battalion formed a 
rallying point. General Greene saw the extent 
of the disaster, and devoted his energies to bring- 
ing off his men. The British retained possession 
of the field. But the Americans took and retained 
five hundred prisoners. The loss on the American 
side was sixty-one officers, killed and wounded, 
over twenty of whom died upon the field. The 
returns state a loss of one hundred and fourteen 
killed, three hundred wounded, and forty missing. 
The terrible slaughter of officers occurred prin- 
cipally in the British camp, in effiDrts to bring off 
the men. The British lost a thousand men, in 
killed, wounded, and missing. The respective force 
of each army was nearly the same — about two 
thousand men ; and the advantage in numbers was 



196 LIFE OF MARION. 

probably with the British, who were, moreover, 
chiefly veterans ; and wonderfully well, under Ma- 
joribanks and Coffin, did they behave. Both sides 
claimed the victory; and Greene proposed to renew 
the engagement on the next day. Stewart, how- 
ever, did not wait for this, but, destroying his stores, 
and leaving his wounded behind, and his dead 
unburied, commenced a retreat. 



LIFE OF MARION. 197 



CHAPTER XV. 

Position of Affairs at the close of the year 1781 — Attempt on Marion's 
Detachment in his Absence — His unexpected Return, and Repulse 
of the Enemy — Meeting of the Legislature — Surprise of Marion's 
Brigade — Defeat of the Loyalists on the Pedee — Defeat of the British 
under Frazier — Death of Colonel Laurens — Evacuation of Charleston 
— Conclusion. 



HE year 1781 closed with decided 
advantage to the American cause in 
South Carohna, as elsewhere. It is 
true that, after the battle of Eutaw, 
no very decided or important action took 
place ; but the news of the surrender of 
Cornwallis put new hope and spirit into the 
hearts of the American leaders — while it 
limited the British operations to the defensive. The 
end was now not dimly visible ; and the movements 
of the enemy were confined to forage and support, 
and to resistance of the restless and indefatigable 
manoeuvres of the American force, which were 
constantly circumscribing the British, and at length 
hemmed them in upon the narrow neck of land 




198 LIFE OF MARION. 

contiguous to Charleston. We have not space to 
describe all the evolutions by which this blockade 
was effected ; nor to relate the different events 
which combined to produce an issue so desirable. 
Yet, in all this state of apparent prosperity, the 
Americans were in a condition unfit to cope with 
the enemy. The regiments were thin, the active 
character of the American volunteers not sympa- 
thizing with the duties of an army of observation ; 
and any dashing movement on a large scale was 
forbidden by the lack of military stores, which 
now, as at most periods during the war, crippled 
the enterprise of the commanders. The British 
forces at the same time were increased by the 
arrival of reinforcements from abroad, and from 
other points in America; and their numbers and 
the loyalists, who had been forced back upon 
Charleston by the recovery of the state by the 
Americans, made the position of the British a most 
strait and uncomfortable one. The British com- 
mander was compelled to kill two hundred of his 
horses, from inability to procure feed for them, so 
closely was he hemmed in by the vigilance of the 
Americans. And yet no small portion of this vigi- 
lance and activity was displayed as much to pre- 
vent the British from discovering the real weakness 
of their besiegers, as for any other purpose. 



LIFE OF MARION. 199 

Marion held one of the advanced posts ; and the 
British general paid an expressive tribute to the 
character of his generalship, and the importance 
of his presence. General Greene had reason to 
suppose that General Leslie, who was in command 
of Charleston, meditated a vigorous movement, to 
break the cordon which so closely shut him in. 
Gre^e, wishing the advice of Marion, and the aid 
of his force, ordered our hero immediately to repair 
to head-quarters. Now it happened that Greene 
was deceived respecting Leslie's purposes. He had 
no intention of the kind that was supposed, being 
entirely ignorant of Greene's weakness. No sooner 
were the British advised of Marion's absence 
from his detachment, than a force was despatched 
from Charleston to attack it. But Marion, who 
was always watchful of events, and who, without 
vanity, was well aware of the consequence which 
the British attached to his movements, anticipated 
this design of theirs. Finding that there was no 
need of his presence in General Greene's camp, 
he hastened back in season to give the British bat- 
tle. The attack was made : the encounter was 
sharp, and the loss on both sides, for a brief skir- 
mish, was severe ; but the British, who were sent 
out with a heavy force to capture a small detach- 
ment, were forced to be content with driving back 



200 LIFE OF MARION. 

a few head of cattle. Captain Campbell, of the 
British army, fell in this engagement. 

On the 18th of January, 1782, the South Carolina 
Legislature was summoned by Governor Rutledge 
to meet at Jacksonburg, almost within striking dis- 
tance of the British army in Charleston. This 
position was chosen to assert the recovery of the 
state, and to show the people the confidence w^ich 
their leaders possessed in the security of the re- 
establishment of the government. The army was 
so posted as to prevent attack, should it be medi- 
tated. 

The presence of Marion was absolutely necessary 
in the Legislature, as important measures were 
before that body, at a juncture so critical. But his 
absence from his brigade was the occasion of a dis- 
aster which had nearly been complete in its destruc- 
tion. There was an unfortunate difference between 
colonels Horry and Maham, touching the prece- 
dence of rank ; and Maham, claiming that his 
command was separate, removed his corps from the 
brigade, and encamped at a distance from it. The 
British, knowing the absence of Marion, and ap- 
prised perhaps of the difficulty between those offi- 
cers, despatched an expedition against the brigade. 
Marion, who hurried from Jacksonburg to join his 
brigade, went first to the ground where Maham's 



LIFE OF MARION. 201 

separate command was posted. Here he was de- 
ceived by the false intelligence that the British 
were retreating ; and pausing to rest after his hard 
ride, was in a little while mortified by the intelli- 
gence that his brigade had been surprised and dis- 
persed. 

Marion instantly put himself at the head of 
Maham's regiment, and moved rapidly toward the 
scene of the disaster, to repair the defeat, or arrest 
it if possible. His active movements and bold 
attacks had nearly converted the defeat into a vic- 
tory ; but, a sudden panic seizing his men, he lost, 
what he styles in his despatches, " a glorious oppor- 
tunity of cutting up the British cavalry." At the 
very moment of the charge, his horse, instead of 
attacking the enemy, dashed off into the woods to 
the rio^ht — and the whole regiment followed. Ma- 
rion even in this desperate case succeeded in rally- 
ing his men in a wood, and checking the pursuit 
of the British. The enemy did not press the vic- 
tory, but fell back to Charleston. The loss of the 
Americans in this affair was not very great; the 
charm of success had, however, been broken, and 
the reliance of the men on each other was impaired. 
A great number of the volunteers did not return 
to their flag. The thinness of the ranks made it 
expedient to unite both regiments into one ; and of 



202 LIFE OF MARION. 

this Maham received the command. Marion would 
gladly have given it to Horry, but considered the 
right clearly with the other. Horry resigned his 
commission, and was appointed by Marion com- 
mandant at Georgetown. 

We find Marion in the spring of the year 1782 
engaged in the suppression of certain Tory move- 
ments on the Pedee. British emissaries had in- 
cited the loyalists there to insurrection. The sudden 
appearance of Marion, who presented himself before 
his approach was suspected, at once checked the 
movement of the loyalists. Five hundred men at 
once laid down their arms, and bound themselves 
to abjure the British crown, and to swear allegiance 
to the United States, and to South Carolina in par- 
ticular ; to take up arms for the state if it should be 
required, and in all respects to demean themselves 
as submissive citizens. Many of them, and among 
the rest the notorious Colonel Gainey, did after- 
ward serve in the American army. Those who 
subscribed the conditions of the treaty which had 
been made between Marion and the loyalists were 
furnished with written guarantees to that effect; 
and it is stated that such was the demand for paper, 
and the insufficiency of the supply, that old letters 
were torn up, and their blank pages used for this 
purpose. 



LIFE OF MARION. 203 

Marion exhibited great policy and humanity in 
this business. Some of the most troublesome and 
notorious Tories were exempted from the terms of 
the treaty. One of these, a troublesome freebooter, 
named Fanning, sent a flag to Marion, begging that 
his wife and children might be granted a safe con- 
duct to the British lines. Marion's officers were 
disposed to refuse it ; but Marion promptly acceded. 
" Let the man's wife and property go, and he will 
follow," said Marion ; and the resiilt proved as he 
had expected. 

At this time occurred one of the severest trials 
of Marion's authority. Among those who came in 
under the promise of protection was a certain Cap- 
tain Butler, — celebrated for his ferocious conduct, 
and obnoxious to many in Marion's company, who 
had themselves experienced his cruelty, or whose 
friends had suffered by him. These men were 
furious against Butler, and determined that no pro- 
tection should save him. Amid the rumblings of 
the storm of hate, Marion took the man to his 
own tent. His enemies threatened to drag him 
thence, for they said, " to defend such a man was 
an insult to humanity." Marion declared he would 
defend him or perish, and at night removed him, 
under a strong guard, to a place of safety. 

The Pedee district being now quiet by the sub- 



204 LIFE OP MARION. 

mission of the Tories, Marion returned to the 
vicinity of the foreign foe. There was, however, 
httle opportunity now left for the exploits which 
had distinguished the partisan in the early part of 
the war. The enemy were no longer active, but 
were occupied only in such movements as were 
necessary to secure provisions, and make prepara- 
tions for evacuating the country. The last encoun- 
ter which Marion had with the British was at 
Watboo, on the Cooper River ; against which post, 
supposing him absent, the enemy had despatched 
a detachment under command of Major Frazier. 
Unfortunately, Marion's cavalry were absent ; and 
as Frazier, taking an unfrequented route, had cap- 
tured some of the out-sentinels, the British com- 
mander advanced in the belief that he was about to 
surprise not Marion, indeed, but the force which 
Marion had left in charge of the post. Our hero's 
movements were so rapid, that he often astonished 
the enemy by appearing when least expected. 

His officers on this occasion, his cavalry being 
absent, acted as scouts, to gain intelligence. His 
post was on a deserted plantation ; and his troops 
were so placed, in the negro houses, and under the 
shelter of neglected and untrimmed trees, as to be 
most effective in position, and still concealed. Many 
of his men were new adherents — Tories who had 



LIFE OP MARION. 205 

taken up arms for their country at the eleventh 
hour. Suffice it to say that they fought like heroes; 
for, as we have remarked in a previous chapter, 
men who had once worn the livery of "the king, if 
taken in arms against him, had no hope of mercy. 

The officers, charged upon by the British caval- 
ry, led their pursuers within the reach of the guns 
of Marion's men ; and then saving themselves from 
the range of the fire, left the British to the effects 
of a tremendous volley. Before this reception the 
enemy broke, but soon rallied, and attempted first 
the right flank of Marion, and then the left. But 
a second charge was not attempted. The enemy 
withdrew ; and without cavalry Marion could not 
attempt pursuit, or relinquish the protection of the 
trees and houses. Thus ended the battles of our 
hero ; for after this he was never in an engagement. 
This action occurred during the latter part of the 
month of August, in 1782. 

The British commander, as the evacuation of 
Charleston was now determined on, proposed to 
General Greene a suspension of hostilities, and 
desired the privilege of purchasing provisions for 
his fleet and army. This overture was unwisely 
declined; and compelled the British to take that 
by force which they would willingly have acquired 
by barter. In one of the skirmishes which grew 



206 LIFE OF MARION. 

out of this state of things, the brave Colonel Lau- 
rens fell, universally lamented ; and the public grief 
was aggravated by the circumstance that no neces- 
sity existed for the exposure of brave spirits to 
danger and death, at the close of the war, when 
courage had nothing to gain, and prudence really 
nothing to lose. Marion never indulged in enter- 
prises by which no advantage was to be secured. 
After the defeat of Frazier at Watboo, just related, 
he was urged to attack a British watering party, 
which had completed its duty, and was just embark- 
ing. " My brigade," he answered, " is composed 
of citizens, enough of whose blood has been shed 
already. If ordered to attack the enemy, I shall 
obey ; but with my consent not another life shall be 
lost, though the event should procure me the high- 
est honours of the soldier. Knowing, as we do, that 
the enemy are on the eve of departure, so far from 
offering to molest, I would send a party to protect 
them." 

On the 14th of December the British evacuated 
Charleston — an event for which at some periods of 
the long war the Americans had hardly dared to 
hope. Marion soon after took leave of his brigade 
in a brief address, acknowledorinof with thanks the 
services of officers and men, and preserving, in this 
affecting scene, the same manly simplicity which 



LIFE OF MARION. 207 

had characterized his whole career. Now the volun- 
teers could separate without the danger of a recall. 
Glorious must have been their exultation — glorious 
despite the gloomy condition of social life, and the 
shattered state of fortune, in which the long war 
had left them. Marion returned to a farm in ruins, 
and to an exhausted property. Fire and ravage had 
severely visited his possessions. But, though over 
fifty years of age, his frame was still elastic, and the 
support of conscious rectitude sustained his spirits. 

He died on the 27th of February, 1795, at the 
age of sixty-three. The last years of his life had 
been spent in comparative comfort. He married at 
a late period in life Mrs. Mary Videau ; and it is 
related of him that, valiant as he was in war, he 
was not bold enough to aspire to this connexion, 
until some of his friends, having sounded the lady's 
wishes better than he in his modesty was capable 
of doing, indicated to him the probable success of 
any overture toward matrimony. He left no de- 
scendants. 

He continued in public life until five years before 
his death ; his name being among the members of 
the convention which formed the State Constitution 
in 1790. In 1794 he formally resigned his com- 
mission ; and the occasion was made to present him 
a respectful address by the citizens of Georgetown. 



208 LIFE OF MARION. 

The Legislature of his state caused him to be 
thanked in his place in the Senate in 1783, for his 
distinguished services; and voted him likewise a 
gold medal. He held also the post of Commander 
of Fort Johnson, in Charleston Harbour, for a few 
years — an office created for him — and resigned 
upon his marriage. Covered with official honours, 
and in the entire enjoyment of the love and 
respect of his fellow-citizens, he died peacefully, 
with the consciousness upon his mind that he had 
never intentionally wronged a human being. 



THE END. 



^'Ay 3 ij^ij 



